Questwalker
by Lawrence Kinden
Summary: Having freed herself of Mr. Quillon's machinations, Dor seeks to return the artifacts that the villainous librarian stole from across the Multiverse. She begins with Excalibur, the famed sword of King Arthur. Or at least, that's the plan. But she keeps getting pulled off course. Thus continue the adventures of Dorothy Alice Wendy: crossing over fandoms and spanning the Multiverse!
1. Mysidia, Part 1

Minwu Ornitier walked between groups of students in dull grey robes, each of whom sat upon the floor, eyes closed, faces serene. She walked with careful grace, examining each student in turn. Though her magic was less reliable than her emotions since her pregnancy, she could still feel the magic in others, could still feel the mana stirring, waiting to be shaped by a patient mind.

Except for one.

Jayce Belar didn't even have his eyes closed. He sat slumped, playing with the hem of his grey apprentice robes. Minwu cleared her throat meaningfully. Jayce looked up at her as though surprised she'd noticed he wasn't meditating, as though they hadn't done this twice this week already.

Jayce straightened up and closed his eyes.

Minwu shook her head as she moved on. Jayce had started class by sitting next to Lilli, a girl who had made it clear she wasn't interested in his attention, and chatting to her through the start of Minwu's guided meditation. She'd have to deal with him again. She'd rather let the Dean of Students deal with the errant boy, but the dean preferred teachers handle their own discipline problems when possible.

Minwu looked at the clock and sighed when she realized there was only seven minutes left. The babies were wrestling in her womb, and she was ready for a break.

* * *

Most of the students were human, but Dor recognized some of the non-human races she'd seen at the military camp her first time to Ivalice. There were three moogles, short and white-furred; and a group of viera, slim with long, tall ears; and even a baanga, a broad, lizard-like person, all in grey robes.

Dor stayed hidden in a row of bookshelves, looking into the classroom through the open door lining up almost perfectly with her row. She was excited to see Minuw, but didn't want to disrupt class. Minwu looked good. At the military camp, the white mage had always seemed tight, concerned. Here she looked round, soft, and happy. She wore a pristine white robe with the repeating red triangle pattern along its hem and cuffs. Her pink hair was long and shiny. Her belly was swollen with pregnancy.

"All right," said Minwu. "I think that's enough for today. Thank you, all." The students blinked from their meditation and began to make their way from the classroom into the library proper, where Dor lurked. Dor pretended to be interested in the books where she hid, in case anyone looked her way.

"Jayce, stay a moment," Minwu's voice carried through the classroom. A human boy, no older than Dor, winced, but approached Minwu, who stood at a desk at the head of the classroom.

Dor waited at the end of the row of bookshelves.

"I'm sorry, Madam Ornitier," the boy said.

"I'm sure you are, Jayce," Minwu replied. "This is the third time this week you've been distracted during meditation. It's one thing to disrupt your own learning, but now you're disrupting that of your classmates. I may have to speak to Dean Undine about your behavior."

The boy gasped. "No, please, I…"

Minwu sighed. "Very well. But this cannot continue. Bend over the desk."

From her position, Dor had a perfect view as the boy bent over the far end of the desk. If he'd looked straight ahead, he'd have seen Dor staring. As it was, he put his forehead on the desk and squeezed his eyes shut. Minwu stood behind him, put a hand on his back to brace herself, then smacked his backside, five times, over his robes. The boy squirmed and whimpered.

 _Well that's hardly fair,_ Dor thought. _He didn't even have to raise his skirts._

When she was done, the boy stood and rubbed his bottom tearfully. Minwu patted his shoulder.

"Get going, Jayce. I'm sure you don't want to be late for your next class."

"Thank you, Madam Ornitier."

Dor waited for the boy to leave before she approached the classroom entryway. Minwu was gathering together a sheaf of papers into a leather scrip. One of the papers slipped from the stack and swayed through the air to settle under the desk. Minwu groaned. She braced a hand on the desk, preparing to kneel. With her belly as swollen as it was, Dor was certain the normally simple task would be arduous.

"I'll get it," said Dor. She went down on her hands and knees by the desk and fished the piece of paper out from under it. She stood and handed it to Minwu.

Minwu had her eyes closed and was breathing evenly. "Thank you," she said, tone strained. And when she opened her eyes, they quickly went wide. "Dorothy?"

Dor smiled, tears coming unbidden. "Hello. You look well."

Minwu's face contorted and for a moment, Dor thought she'd be sick. Then the woman began crying. She grabbed Dor and pulled her into a tight hug, awkward over her swollen belly. Dor hugged her back and, spurred by Minwu's tears, let her own fall.

"You disappeared so suddenly," Minwu said. "I understand why you did it, but you could have come to me for help. I could have protected you. Oh, I should spank you so hard, Dorothy, do you know that? I'm so happy to see you're all right." Despite how hard Minwu's squeezed her, Dor didn't pull away. Minwu kissed the top of her forehead. After some time more, Minwu pushed Dor to arm's length.

"You look… confident."

Dor smiled. "You look beautiful." She reached a hand to Minuw's belly, then hesitated. "May I?"

Minwu beamed. "Of course."

Dor rested her hand on Minwu's belly. It was firm though her white mage robes. "How far along are you?"

"About eight and a half months. I'm having twins."

Dor smiled, then frowned in confusion. "How long as it been since I left?" She'd spent two weeks with Kya in Republic City and three and a half months with the Hufflepuffs at Hogwarts. It wouldn't surprise her if time flowed differently between planes of existence, but it would provide quite the headache.

"Only about four months," said Minwu. "I thought the stress of military life was why I missed my moondays, but apparently the one time I let my passions get the better of me…" She blushed. "I was nearly four months pregnant when you arrived and didn't even know it."

Dor grinned. "So. Who…"

Minwu blushed harder. She cleared her throat. "Why don't we go back to my apartment to catch up?"

Minwu lead Dor through the library, past classrooms, to a set of stairs. The library was massive but cramped, with hardwood floors, straight backed chairs, and tall, meticulous book shelves.

"Where are we?" Dor asked as they climbed the stone steps.

"This is the mage school at Mysidia," Minwu said. "How did you find me here if you didn't know where here was?"

"I searched for you though the library in my mind. I've gotten much better at planeswalking. So long as I can focus on a person who's in or near a library, I seem to be able to travel directly to the library. It's only when I'm reaching blindly that I end up somewhere I've never been."

"Curious," Minwu said.

On the third floor was a set of apartments for teachers who didn't have quarters off-campus. Minwu was winded at the top of the stairs. Dor offered her arm and Minwu took it gratefully. She leaned on Dor as they made their way to the end of the hallway. The apartment was small and neat, everything in its place, just as Dor expected. There was a bed in one corner piled with quilts and pillows, all neatly folded and stacked. A three-drawer dresser stood at its foot. There was a space for sitting with two bookshelves and two thickly cushioned chairs. A thick rug covered most of the wooden floor and an attached water closet.

Next to the bed was a doubled-sized wooden bassinet, at the ready.

Minwu went to the window at the far end of the room, near the bed, and opened it a crack. "Sorry, Dorothy, I'm always too hot lately."

"It's fine," said Dor. "Is there something I can do for you?"

Minwu shook her head, then said, "Actually, can you help me out of these robes?"

Dor loosed the ties at Minwu's back and pulled it all over her head, then did the same with her undershift, leaving the white mage in a camisole, drawers, and stockings. Minwu sat on the bed and Dor pulled off her stockings. Minwu sighed with relief. Dor folded the clothes neatly and set them atop the dresser. With Dor's help, Minwu stood and together they crossed the small apartment to the reading corner. Minwu sat with another sigh and cradled her belly.

"Thank you for understanding, Dorothy. All those layers are stifling."

"Of course," said Dor. She sat in other chair and tucked her feet under her.

"So. To answer your question, yes, Li is the father. He and I… it was a while before you arrived in camp. Li and I have known each other for several years. I needed companionship and he provided. I didn't realize until later that we'd gotten pregnant. And once the commander found out, well, apparently expecting mothers aren't allowed to serve on the front lines."

"That seems sensible," said Dor.

Minwu shot her a glare. "And what of expecting fathers?"

Dor squirmed uncomfortably. "Li's not here?"

"He visits once every two weeks, but he's still serving the commander as a bodyguard."

"Sorry."

Minwu closed her eyes and shook her head. "It's not your fault." She looked at Dor and smiled, a few tears tracking down her cheeks. "I'm very glad you came to visit me." She wiped at her cheeks with a small growl of frustration. "I hope you'll forgive the crying too. I can't control that anymore."

"Of course."

"All right. " Minwu took a big breath and cleared her throat. "Now, tell me what's happened since you left."

Dor gave her the whole story: Elmira, Quillon, Kya, Hogwarts, and her recent victory. She told her about the room in her mind and the grimoire and her wand. She told her about her studies of the multiverse and escaping the animated library.

"And then I was in a massive rose garden. I fell into a healing fountain. Then these women appeared, a giant woman with pink hair named Rose Quartz, and her bodyguard, a thin woman named Pearl. They were amazing, Minwu."

Minwu laughed. " _You_ are amazing, Dorothy. I'm so proud of you."

Dor blushed. "I was only trying to protect myself. Not like you. You protect others."

Minwu shook her head. "I'm a teacher now. My magic's been a bit unreliable since the pregnancy got more… intense. And besides, you never gave up. You kept pushing, kept learning. I would dearly love to see your grimoire. I remember you describing it before, back in camp. I realize it only exists in your mind, but I've made a study of all kinds of magic. The way you describe magic is unlike anything I've seen before."

Dor considered. It was true her grimoire only existed in her mind, but she'd held Twilight's Blink in her hand on the roof of the orphanage. Perhaps she could bring the whole book into the real world.

Someone knocked at the door.

"By Ultima, what now?" Minwu said.

"I can answer it," said Dor, standing. "Do you want me to fetch you a quilt?"

Minwu smiled at her, looking tired. "Would you please?"

Dor took a quilt from the bed and draped it over the nearly nude white mage, then went to the door. It was a young woman in the same grey robes the students in Minwu's class had worn. She blinked at Dor uncertainly.

"I'm supposed to ask what Madam Ornitier wants for dinner."

Dor looked over her shoulder and Minwu nodded, so she let the girl in.

"Just the stew and bread, please, Ms. Jocie," Minwu said. "And some for my guest, please."

The girl nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

When she was gone, Dor closed the door.

"They deliver your food?"

"Only since it's gotten difficult for me to go up and down the stairs so often. Honestly, it's a bit irritating. I'm pregnant, not an invalid. And yet…" She sighed.

Dor took a breath, considering. She'd sat on the bench on Beach City's boardwalk, thinking a lot about where to go first, which of her friends to see. She'd chosen Minwu because of her pregnancy, but also…

"Were you serious earlier?" Dor asked.

"About what?"

"About, you know, spanking me?"

Minwu raised her eyebrows. "You mean for running away instead of telling me what was going on? Yes. But, you've been through so much now…"

"Oh," said Dor.

Minwu sat up straight, pushing the quilt down to her lap. "Dorothy? Is there something you want to say?"

Dor shrugged. "It's just… Your spankings made me feel safe. And I… I felt really awful about leaving you like that. I… I was pushed away from Twilight Sparkle and Jubilee, but I _left_ you. I wanted to apologize and to…"

"Well, I'd take you over my lap, but…" Minwu gestured at her belly.

"I could bend over the bed," Dor said. She blushed. "Unless… If you're too tired…"

"You're serious about this?"

Dor nodded.

Minwu pushed herself to her feet and folded the quilt. "All right, young lady. Bare your bottom and bend over the bed. Your spanking is long overdue."

Dor looked at the door apprehensively. "What about dinner?"

"They won't be back for a few hours. We have time and privacy."

Dor took off her shoulder bag and set it on her chair. She undressed, folding each article meticulously and setting it on top of her bag. As she did, Minwu went to her dresser and opened the top drawer. When she was nude, Dor turned to the bed and found Minwu looking at her, arms crossed beneath her ample breasts, hairbrush in one hand.

Dor whimpered, but it was also a kind of sigh.

She went to the bed and bent, resting her forearms on the folded quilts, thrusting her pale, naked bottom high. She felt at once relaxed and nervous, certain Minwu would take good care of her. She tingled all over, a dancing power tickling at her skin. She was vulnerable and eager and when Minwu put a hand on her back, she tensed. Minwu put her wide, soft hip against Dor and Dor leaned into her. The white mage was warm, like hot chocolate on a winter day. Minwu rested the hairbrush back on Dor's bare bottom. She patted it gently several times, alternating cheeks.

Dor braced herself.

Minwu put her hand on Dor's waist and held her tight.

The back of that hairbrush stung. Dor's nates were lit afire in a matter of moments. The rhythmic crack of smooth wood on her bottom filled her ears. She squeezed her eyes shut but they were no barrier to the tears. Her shoulders ached with the weight of the spanking, but she held firm, refusing to collapse. She found she couldn't stop herself from wiggling, from swaying side to side as much as Minwu's firm hold would let her, unintentionally trying to escape the stinging hairbrush.

When it was done, Dor felt like the fire of the spanking had spread though her, but it felt good. Like she'd been cleansed or renewed. She had deserved the spanking for leaving Minwu, for not trusting her, or at least talking to her first. Now she felt absolved of that. But more, she felt comforted and loved in a way she never had back at the orphanage. Sister Mary Margaret and the others were the guardians of the orphans, but they had never been as motherly as Minwu. In Minwu, Dor had, not a mother exactly, but perhaps a big sister, someone she could approach with her guilt and come away feeling forgiven, whether though a frank discussion or a firm hug or a thorough spanking.

Minwu pulled a pair of soft, oversized nighties from her dresser. She pulled on one and gave Dor the other. They sat on the bed close together, Minwu's arm around Dor's shoulder, cuddling until Dor's tears went away, until the fire was a blessed warmth, until there was a knock at the door.

Minwu was about to get up, but Dor forestalled her.

"You don't have to wait on me," Minwu said.

Dor shook her head. "You've done a lot for me today. Let me do this for you." She kissed Minwu's cheek and got to her feet.

The same young, grey-clad mage was there with a lap tray bearing two large bowls filled with a thick, creamy vegetable stew and a pair of crusty brown rolls and a pitcher of water with a pair of mugs.

Dor let her in and the girl brought it to Minwu's bed.

Minwu and Dor ate dinner on the bed together. Despite the several doughnuts she'd eaten in Beach City, Dor found herself voracious. The stew was filling and satisfying. When they were finished, Dor set the dirty dishes on the lap tray outside the door at Minwu's direction.

Then Dor let Minwu brush out her hair with the same hairbrush she'd used to spank Dor's bottom. She hadn't done anything with it since her dunking in Rose's fountain and subsequent bath in the ocean, so it was tangled and salty, but Minwu was gentle. When her hair was brushed out, Minwu put it in two neat braids and tied them with a pair of spare white ribbons.

Minwu tried to insist Dor should take the bed and she'd sleep in one of the chairs, but Dor flatly refused. When Minwu persisted, Dor said, "Keep that up and I won't be the only one with a spanked bottom in this apartment."

Minwu looked at her surprised.

Dor took Minwu's hands and kissed them. "You aren't an invalid, but you _are_ pregnant and there's no way I'm kicking you out of your bed."

Minwu chuckled. "You really have grown more confident."

With the chairs pushed together so the seats faced each other, Dor had a cushy if cramped bed. Compared to the standard of Princess Celestia's palace, or the four-posters in the Hufflepuff basement, it wasn't terribly comfortable, but she'd made due with worse for the first thirteen years of her life at St. Bridget's.

* * *

Dor sat in the room in her mind. She hadn't had a chance to examine it since defeating the book elemental. It was packed with books, more then there'd been before. Every bit of wall space was covered with bookshelves and every shelf was filled with books. Only a narrow doorway in one wall interrupted the flow of books.

Dor took her time examining them.

There were all the books she expected to be there: _Wibbly Wobbly_ , _Considering L-Space_ , _Theories of the Multiverse_ , but there was also _There and Back Again_ and _The Lord of the Rings_ by Tolkien. There was _Hogwarts, a History_ , which she'd only read a bit of in the Hogwarts library. And then there was a series of seven books proclaiming itself the Harry Potter series. Dor pulled the first: _Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone_. She opened it to the first page:

 _Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense._

It appeared to be the story of Harry Potter's years at Hogwarts School of Wizardry. The prime universe, Mr. Quillon had called it. Before she could get sucked into the tale, she reshelved it. She wanted to examine the rest. And there would be time for reading later.

In the way of dreams, her focus shifted, recentering on her grimoire, which sat upon the study table in the center of the room. Minwu had said she'd like to look at it. Dor thought it might be possible. If books she'd never read before, books describing planes of existence as fiction, could exist in the room in her mind, then why _couldn't_ her grimoire exist outside her mind?

She tucked the brown leather bound book under her arm and went to that narrow door interrupting the bookshelves. She knew by the tingle in her shoulders that door led to the multiverse, through the Blind Eternities, to all manner of planes of existence, one of which included the war-torn land of Ivalice and the mage school at Mysidia and the apartment in which rested Minwu Ornitier.

Dor opened the door and stepped into the book-lined hallway of her mind, letting her fingers trail along the book spines and, just as before, several steps on, a corridor opened on her left.

This time, instead of stepping into the library proper, she stepped into Minwu's private collection, a pair of bookcases taking up one corner of the small apartment where she'd pushed a pair of chairs together to create a makeshift bed.

* * *

Dor stumbled coming out of the library in her mind and fell onto the chairs with a grunt and a squeak.

"Dor? Are you hurt?"

"No. Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you."

"I haven't fallen asleep yet. The babies are kicking. I thought you were asleep though. You were snoring."

Dor blushed. "I… uh… I snore?"

"Lightly. It's cute. Li snores like…" Minwu cleared her throat and sniffled

Dor looked at her grimoire in the faint light coming through the window. "I was dreaming. I think. I was in the room in my mind and… you said you wanted to see my grimoire, right?"

"Seriously?" Excitement was evident in Minwu's tone.

"I think so. Though I was dreaming…" She squeezed the book in her hands, convincing herself it was solid. "On the other hand, dreams have been instrumental in learning my spells. Remember when I set off Jubilee's Dazzler in our tent?"

Minwu snorted. "I certainly do." Dor heard Minwu struggle to sit up. And with a scrape and a clink, lit a lantern. The soft orange glow filled the room. "I can't sleep anyway," said Minwu. "Can we look at it now?"

Dor smiled. Minwu seemed positively giddy. "Absolutely."

The night had grown cool and Dor was happy for her borrowed nightgown, but Minwu was still too warm and had divested herself of her underwear. Even in pregnancy, or perhaps because of it, Dor thought Minwu was beautiful. Her wide hips and full breasts compared to Dor's own slim, boyish figure, made her blush. They sat together on Minwu's bed and Dor set the grimoire upon her lap.

It was precisely as it had been in her mind. A thick, brown leather cover enclosing pages of a smooth, transparent material. Each page was broken into pockets, three rows of three, and each pocket held a playing card. There were five white cards, two blue, and two red. Dor withdrew Minwu's Cura, the art for which showed the beautiful, pink-haired white mage limned with blue light, eyes closed, face serene.

It felt cool and heavy in her fingers, like it held a wealth of knowledge, years of training, hard experience. She handed it to Minwu who took it carefully.

"It feels like thick paper, but… I don't know how to describe it."

Dor nodded.

"And this script. I can read the title, Minwu's Cura," the white mage cleared her throat and Dor saw her blush. "But I don't know what the rest of this means. I think I recognize the words, but as soon I look at the next it's like I've forgotten it. And yet it feels like the spell I know… condensed."

She turned the card over and on the backside was a plain brown field, the same color as the cover of the book, and five colored spheres, each equidistant from the others, like they were points of a pentagon, white at the top and, in clockwise order, blue, black, red, and green.

"What does this mean?" Minwu asked.

Dor shook her head. "I'm not certain. So far everything I've learned has a colored border and I think," she touched the white sphere at the top, "this spell has an association with the white sphere. Likewise the blue with the blue sphere, and the red with the red. But I've never seen a black or green bordered card."

"Well you've only been at it for what, six months?"

Dor nodded. "Or thereabouts. It's been hard to keep track of time, especially with the seasons being inconsistent."

Mwinu handed back the card, and Dor slipped it into its pocket.

"What do you mean?"

"I told you about Hogwwarts? There, everyone's just gone on break for Christmas, a winter holiday. But in Beach City, it smelled like spring. Also, it's the year nineteen-o'eight back at the orphanage, but twenty-fifteen in New York City. So, time's become hard to keep track of."

"Fascinating," said Minwu. "And you're certain you're not a time traveler?"

Dor nodded but said, "Not entirely. I think so. The different versions _feel_ different, have a different," she shrugged, "flavor."

"Well, so you know, this planet isn't called Earth, it's called Gaia."

"Which is the Greek word for Earth," said Dor. "On my world there's a lot of different languages and Gaia is what the Greeks called it."

Minwu was fascinated by the differences between planes, fascinated that everyone Dor had met on differing planes of existence spoke English, or as Minwu called it, the Common Tongue. Dor told her what Mr. Quillon had said about parallel worlds that had largely the same history versus alternate worlds which had vast differences. She told her about the idea of a Prime Universe and the parallels resultant came from less likey choices. She let Minwu examine each of her spells in turn, describing how it felt to bend water with movement, to organize her mind like a library, to disarm an opponent, to cast blinding sparks.

"I remember how that one felt," said Minwu with nudge.

Dor giggled. "You already spanked me for that."

She described how powerful it felt to hurl fire, though Elmira Gulch on the red spells in her mind made her uncomfortable.

"This is the girl who pursued you?" Minwu asked.

Dor nodded.

"There's always much to learn. Even from our foes. What happened to them?"

"The book elemental stuck Mr. Quillon into nonexistence. Ms. Sharpe, from the Time Bureau, said she rescued the other girls. Including Elmira." Dor sighed. "Mr. Quillon was awful. He did awful things to those girls and I'm sure he had awful things planned for me, but I still feel bad. I wish our conflict could have been resolved more gently.

"As for Elmira and the others. They're rescued, but I don't know what's happened to them since." She touched the red cards, they felt warm and eager though the pocket. "She was mean and angry," Dor said. "She hated me. But I hope she's all right."

Minwu kissed the top of her head.

Dor cleared her throat and turned the page. "And look at this." Gems' Fusion had a gold border but a pinstripe around the artwork faded from white to blue to red. Dor withdrew the card and handed it to Minwu.

"A combination of colors I suppose," said Minwu. "She closed her eyes. "I get a sense of this one. It's about joining together, both literally and figuratively, mentally and emotionally. This is a spell of friendship."

Dor's shoulders tingled gently.

"And what of these?" Minwu asked, turning the page.

The next nine-pocket page and the several after that were filled with the full art depictions of the myriad artifacts Mr. Quillon had stolen. They had no text but for their titles. After Dor explained, Minwu nodded thoughtfully.

"I suppose with your paradox summoning the book elemental and subsequent collapse of the mindcage, because the elemental followed you through your mind space, the one anchored to the other. That must have been enough to put his ill-gotten gains into your grimoire."

She tapped the card entitled Excalibur, the great blade of King Arthur resting upon a bed of samite.

"This is a holy object," she said. "May I?"

Dor nodded and Minwu withdrew the playing card form its pocket. The white mage hefted it.

"Do you know what this is?"

Dor nodded. "Where I come from, it's the sword of the legendary King Arthur, head of the Knights of the Round table. He earned it from the Lady of the Lake. It's a symbol of striking down evil and protecting the innocent. But it's not real, just a legend. Except Mr. Quillon said King Arthur really existed in some versions of Earth and he got this one from the Lady of the Lake after King Arthur's death."

"Fascinating," said Minwu. "There's an Ivalice legend of Excalibur as well. It was forged by the dwarves for the Warriors of Light and used to slay the Great Demon Chaos."

Dor sighed, dejected.

"What's wrong?"

"I hoped to return these artifacts to their proper places. But if there's a legend of Excalibur on Earth, and here on Gaia, how do I known which Excalibur this is?"

"The way you describe your magic, it's largely intuitive. Do you get a feeling from this card?"

Dor shook her head. She didn't get the same tingly feeling from the stolen artifacts she got from her spells.

"It's almost like I need to read the card's mind."

"Hmm… Telepathy is a rare skill on Ivalice. Do any of your extra-planar friends have access to telepathy?"

Dor immediately thought of Jean, the tall, calm, red-haired woman in the black uniform who, along with Scott, had saved her and Jubilee from the metal spiders. Jean had spoken directly into her mind. And though Dor hadn't gotten to know her well enough to call her a friend, perhaps Jubilee would put in a good word for her.

* * *

When the sun rose, Dor yawned finally feeling tired.

"Help me up, would you?" said Minwu. "I have to pee and get ready for the day."

"Oh, you have to teach don't you? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to keep you up all night."

Dor helped haul Minwu to her feet.

"That's not your fault. The babies have kept me up all night more than once. Besides, I've only got meditation classes this sememster."

"Still," said Dor. "I should have…"

Minwu waved her off. "If you feel that bad, you can help me get ready for the day."

After Minwu's turn in the water closet, Dor took one, then she brushed Minwu's hair and helped her get dressed before opening the laundry bag and selecting her own clothes. She chose the yellow hufflepuff panties, black skirt, and white button up. Though it wasn't Hogwarts, it was still a school, so Dor decided a bit more formality was in order and put on the black and yellow striped Hufflepuff tie. Finally, she belted on her holster and slid her wand into place snugly.

"That's fetching," said Minwu.

"It the Hogwarts uniform. Yellow and black is for House Hufflepuff."

They were about to make their way down to the mess hall when a solid knock sounded at the door. Dor looked at Minwu who shrugged, so Dor answered it. There stood Li. He wore a dark blue vest and pants cinched with a black belt. His clothes were frayed, worn, and mud-stained. He looked travel weary, but his expression was bright. He bore a lap tray with large, steaming kettle and three ceramic mugs each full of coffee. The aroma perked Dor up.

He smiled at Dor. "When they told me Minwu had a guest, I was hoping it'd be you. It's good to see you, Dorothy."

"Good to see you too, papa-to-be."

Li's smiled turned to a goofy grin.

"I brought coffee," he said.

"By all means," said Dor, stepping aside. She looked at Minwu, expecting her friend to be thrilled, instead she had her arms crossed firmly beneath her breasts, expression firm.

Dor looked from Minwu to Li, whose expression faded, back to Minwu.

"Here," said Dor, taking the lap tray from Li. "Let me…"

Li came into the room, arms almost outstretched then stopped then put his hands at his side awkwardly. Dor stepped aside, setting the lap tray on one of the chairs. She picked up a mug of coffee and breathed it in.

Neither Li nor Minwu looked ready for coffee, so Dor tried to stay out of the way. There had been coffee at Hogwarts, but it'd been a morning or two since she'd had any, and just the smell was enough to make her shoulders relax. She took a sip and let the warm drink tingle at her taste buds before swallowing. She felt the faint hint of a buzz tease about the base of her skull.

"It's good to see you," Li see.

"It's been nearly three weeks," said Minwu.

"Yes. I'm sorry. I was going to send a letter, but… Things came up."

"Things that put you in danger?"

"You know I can't talk about that," said Li, tone half pleading, half apologetic.

"If I were there, I could at least protect you. Or heal you. These babies need you," Minuw said, putting a hand on top of her belly.

"Yes," said Li. He reached into his vest. "That's why—"

" _I_ need you," said Minwu. "I need you here. With me."

"I know. I…"

"You say that, but you've been gone. I know you think Lord Hillary fights for a righteous cause. I know you think the War of the Lions is important. But it's not more important than your family."

Li looked about to say something else, then clamped his jaw and withdrew a folded piece of paper from his vest. "The commander gave me this. She insisted, in fact. It's a letter or discharge."

Minwu took a breath as though to respond, but her breath was shaky and tears spilled down her cheeks. Within moments, she was crying uncontrollably. Li went to her and she hugged him fiercely, making fists in the back of his vest. Li wrapped his arms gently around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head.

Quietly as she could, Dor left the apartment, went down the hall and sat at the top of the stairs where she drank her coffee.

* * *

They ate breakfast together in the mess hall. Though Minwu had obviously been crying, she practically glowed. She and Li sat very close together.

The magic school at Mysidia was offering Li a teaching position, training those mages who expected to find themselves on the front lines in the rudiments of physical self-defense. Today he would move the both of them into one of the school's family accommodations, a cozy cottage on campus, but not in the library itself. All of this Li told them with unbridled enthusiasm.

When it was time for Minwu's first class, Li went upstairs to move her things to their new cottage. Dor went with Minwu to class where she was introduced as Minwu's apprentice from a foreign magic school. This garnered Dor a lot of curious looks, but no one bothered to speak to her. She sat with them and meditated at Minwu's direction. She found she could sit in silent darkness, feeling the presence of the room in her mind, with comforting ease.

During Minwu's third class, Dor was joined by a boy. It was Jayce, the same boy she'd seen spanked yesterday. He smiled at her in a friendly way that reminded her of her fellow Hufflepuffs. It wasn't that the other students in Minwu's meditation classes had been unfriendly, rather cautiously standoffish. This boy had no such reservations.

"Hi. I'm Jayce." He stuck out his hand.

Dor shook firmly and saw him wince slightly. Though she was sure he couldn't be younger than her, he seemed very childlike. Dor had just turned thirteen the month before all this started, but she found she'd never felt much like a child.

"Dor. Nice to meet you."

"So, you're Madam Ornitier's apprentice?"

Dor nodded. At the head of the room, Minwu began leading them through meditation. Dor closed her eyes, feeling the peace of the last two periods settling about her shoulders.

"Were you with her in the War of the Lions?"

Dor opened one eye to find Jayce looking at her with unabashed curiosity. "Yes."

"Wow. I'm going to serve on the front lines one day."

Dor frowned. Her experience in that military camp had been brief, but the little she'd seen had convinced her she wasn't excited by war. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

"What's it like at your school?"

Dor snapped her eyes open. "Young man, if you don't want to find yourself with a spanked bottom, I suggest you begin your meditation." Jayce blushed and hunched his shoulders. Dor bit her tongue. On the one hand, he was annoying and she didn't feel like she owed him anything. On the other, she could see her comment had stung. "Look. You want to be a mage in the War of the Lions? Meditation is the first step."

"But it's so boring."

Jayce's tone held an edge of whining, and it was all Dor could do not to spank him herself.

"The very basics of magic are about concentration, focus, imagination and metaphor. If you can't even manage that, you'll never be able to cast Cura." As she said the word, the white-bordered card flickered in her mind.

"I don't—"

Dor held up a hand. "Focus, Jayce."

"On what? The blackness behind my eyelids? A bowl of water?"

"How about a room?"

"What?" He sounded curious.

"Imagine a room in your mind. It's your room. Only you can go there and it can be anything you want." Jayce took a breath, but Dor continued to forestall him. "Imagine you're sitting in the middle of that room. Imagine it has everything you need to be comfortable."

"My books?" Jayce's voice was quieter, calmer.

"Yes. Tell me about the books."

"My grandpa's old war journals. His theorems on black magic. Mom's book of sword forms. The tales of Bartz the Adventurer…"

"Can you see them?" Dor asked. "Are they on a shelf in the room in your mind?"

"Yeah. Okay. I can see them."

"Excellent. I want you to imagine them in minute detail. Every crease. Every wrinkle. What do they smell like? What do they sound like when you flip through the pages? And when you've got them firm in your mind, look at the bookshelf. Is it made of wood? What kind? What color?"

Dor paused and took a breath. She took another, waiting, and when she took a third and Jayce didn't speak, she opened an eye to look at him. He sat up straight, eyes closed, breath even.

Dor smiled.

* * *

At the end of the day, Dor sat with Minwu and Li in their new little cottage. Li had brought everything of Minwu's into the cottage from the apartment, which was mostly the clothes and books. Dor noticed the bassinet had been brought and stood next to a bed big enough for the two of them. All through dinner, Dor couldn't help but notice all the little looks and touches passing between the two.

When the meal was done, Dor pushed back from the table and stood.

"You're not going, are you?" Minwu asked, tears immediately at her eyes.

"I'll visit, I promise," said Dor. "But I need to start figuring out how to return all those stolen artifacts."

Minwu stood and came around the table to give Dor a hug. "I'm going to be very cross if 'soon' turns out to be more than a week. I'm serious. I'll worry if you're gone too long."

Dor nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

Li gave her a hug and kissed the top of her head.

Dor turned to the bookshelves on the far end of the room, still only half full, and felt a tingle along her shoulders. She walked toward them and a corridor opened in her mind. She stepped through and slipped between.


	2. Omniverse, Part 1

Benjamin Tennyson crept through the woods on silent, padded feet. Wildmutt, the shaggy, orange, four-legged, dog-like alien wasn't Ben's favorite creature from the alien-watch, but it was the best as sneaking. Even though it was large and broad, Wildmutt's feet were soft and silent when he wanted them to be. And even though it had no eyes, Wildmutt's senses were superior, detecting heat and scent in a way far better than anything Ben could do in his boring old human form.

At the edge of the woods through which Ben, as Wildmutt, stalked, was a small lake where he and Gwen and Grandpa had fished this afternoon. Now Gwen Tennyson, his dweeb of a cousin, sat at the end of the rickety old dock, tapping away at her laptop. She wasn't even supposed to have her laptop out. Grandpa wanted them to "get the full camping experience", which is why she'd snuck off.

Ben couldn't help but snicker. In Wildmutt's form, it manifested as a deep, throaty chuckle. He could already imagine Gwen's face.

* * *

Dor focused on Jubilee as she walked down the book-lined corridors of L-Space, navigating the Blind Eternities, her chest warmed by the spark of magic that allowed her to planeswalk. She hoped her friend was in a library, or at least near a library. After several minutes of walking, she was beginning to think she'd need to rethink her path when a corridor suddenly opened on her left.

She turned and found the shelves were smooth, white metal, each book contained in a bright green cover. The corridor stretched as far as she could see. Dor knew, uncertain how, that there were over a million books in this corridor.

Curious, Dor reached out for one of the books. The cover was smooth and cool, much like the nine-pocket pages of her grimoire. The front was that same bright green with a black circle stamped in its center. The circle was contained a green hourglass symbol. Below the symbol was a single word: Vulpimancer.

She opened the book.

 _Vulpimancers are the sapient species of the planet Vulpin. They are a quadrapedial, canid and range from 1.8 to 4.5 meters at the shoulder. Their fur is in shades of brown to red to orange with adult males developing stripes upon their backs. They have the paws, claws, and jaws typical of most canids throughout the universe._

 _Vulpimancers are one of the few species of the universe without ocular organs. Instead, they have gill-like nostrils on the sides of their necks allowing them to sense a variety of stimuli including infrared and ultraviolet, which are typically outside the visible spectrum._

The book went on like that for a while and Dor knew she could have stood there for hours and read all about the fascinating species. But her shoulders tingled and her chest grew warm and she remembered she had a goal. She turned to return to her usual pathway only to find it gone, that the hallway of books with bright green covers on smooth white bookshelves stretched forever in both directions.

Dor bit her lip and cursed her lack of focus. She made sure of her bookbag on her shoulder and her wand at her hip before continuing though the corridor, hoping it took her somewhere with a library.

* * *

She stumbled from the Blind Eternities in a flash of green light, falling sideways to a dirt floor and the scent of pine. Dor scrambled to her feet and her bearings, drawing her wand. She found herself just inside the edge of a forest. A large, shaggy orange quadruped with no eyes and a massive muzzle stood at the edge of the forest facing a lake several paces on. It was a vulpimancer, the same creature she'd read about in the library in her mind.

And on a dock jutting into that lake sat a girl with her back to the vulpimancer.

The vulpimancer turned its muzzle Dor's way and growled low in its chest. Its throat gills flared and she knew it had sensed her.

"Easy," said Dor. "I don't want to hurt you."

It took a threatening step toward her, lips curling in a snarl.

Dor settled back into a waterbending stance and felt the water in the lake shift.

The vulpimancer took another step toward her, and Dor took a smooth step back, remembering how Kya had taught her to stand, taught her to move. The playing card tickled at the back of her mind.

"Easy," she said again. "Easy..."

But the vulpimancer crouched and she knew it was about to leap. She moved her arms in an abrupt sweep, left to right, even as the canid alien pounced at her. A stream of water leapt from the lake and slammed into the creature, knocking it sideways. The girl on the dock shouted in surprise and alarm. Dor spared a look for her in case there more vulpimancers, but she was alone and unharmed, staring at them in amazement. The vulpimancer got to its feet, shaking water from its matted fur.

Dor hadn't realized before, but the creature wore a collar. It was bright green and at its center was a symbol, the same symbol stamped on the cover of the book in her mind, a green hourglass inscribed in a black circle. The symbol was bulky, made of some kind of metal, and it glowed with an inner light. With its shiny metal and glowing light, it reminded Dor of the mechanical spiders in New York City. She wondered if Jubilee's Dazzler would be as effective against this machine as it had been against the spiders.

The vulpimancer growled and charged. Dor lifted her hands, wand loose in her right, and the water that had splashed into the earth lifted with them. She took a step back while thrusting her right hand forward. The vulpimancer dodged to the side but she managed to catch it a glancing blow upon its shoulder. It tumbled to its feet gracefully. The beast was strong and dexterous and Dor was certain she couldn't hold it off for long. The red-bordered fire spells flickered in the back of her mind, warmed her shoulders, but she didn't want to use them unless absolutely necessary.

Dor readied herself for the vulpimancer's next assault, lifting the water about herself in a defensive streamer. It came at her, feinting to her left. Dor lashed with the water, but missed as the creature moved to the right and came for her, jaws wide. Dor reacted, flicking her wand, and threw pink and yellow sparks at the vulpimancer's collar. When they struck, the green hourglass sparked and turned red. It emitted a series of tones in descending order and volume, then sputtered. The vulpimancer glowed with bright green light for a moment and a half, and when it faded, the canid alien was replaced by a little boy, tumbling to the forest floor The boy pushed to his feet, soaked and groaning. He was younger than Dor by a few years at least. Short and wiry, he had a shock of uncombed brown hair and bright green eyes. He wore a white and black short-sleeved shirt, and a pair of baggy, dark green pants. The device the vulpimancer had worn around its neck was duplicated on the boy's arm.

Dor looked from the boy to the girl and back again and realized the boy _was_ the vulpimancer, that he'd been sneaking up on the girl. Dor felt fury, a burning roil in her belly that spread through her chest to her shoulders.

"Were you stalking her?" Dor demanded, pointing at the girl.

The boy looked guilty, hunching his shoulders and ducking his head. He looked up at Dor, half defiant, half mischievous. "What's it to you? Who are you anyway?"

"You naughty, _naughty_ , little boy," said Dor. She was inclined to spank his bottom, but she didn't know him, didn't have permission, and didn't want to act as the sisters at St. Bridget's had. So she took a breath and bit her tongue.

The boy crossed his arms defiantly. "Whatever. She's just a stupid girl anyway. I was only—"

Dor's compunction evaporated. Clearly this boy needed a lesson in what a girl could do. She snagged his arm. "Just a stupid girl? Well this girl defeated you in a duel. Let me show you what else a girl is capable of." For all the boy's strength and speed as a vulpimancer, as a little boy he wasn't better than average.

"Hey, what are you doing?" the boy demanded.

Dor knelt on the forest floor, left thigh horizontal, and drew him to her.

"Whoa, wait a minute!"

Dor found it easy to bend him over her thigh. The baggy pants, she knew, would be sufficient impediment to her chastisement, but they were loose enough around the waist that, when she grabbed hold of them, she easily pulled them to his ankles.

"You can't!" he said, voice high and pleading.

The boy put hand back, but Dor took hold of his wrist without trouble. He wore a pair of bright green panties. Dor considered pulling them down, but after a moment decided not to. It felt like a step too far.

She spanked his bottom low, where it met his thighs. The boy yelped, high and shrill, like he'd never been spanked before. Dor felt sympathy for him. She had never managed to take a spanking stoically, the way Sister Mary Margaret thought she ought to. But Dor was determined to make sure he would think twice about sneaking up on little girls minding their own business.

She spanked him again.

"Okay!" he said desperately. "I get it. I get it! Please..."

She spanked him a third time, his little bottom bouncing under her palm.

"Please. I'm sorry. I..."

She spanked him a forth time and felt the sting in her palm. She knew the spanking must have turned his bottom pink, even though, from her experience, it had been mild.

"Gwen! Help me! Get Grandpa Max! I'm being attacked!"

Girlish, high-pitched giggling caught Dor's attention, and she looked to the left where the girl who'd sat on the dock stood watching, a device in the crook of her arm and a smirk on her face. Though hair was vivid auburn, she had the same green eyes as the boy over her thigh. She wondered if they were related. Brother and sister perhaps.

The girl held up a hand. "Don't stop on my account. This brat's deserved a spanking for, like, the last ten years."

"Hey!" shouted the boy. "Why don't you use your lucky powers and get this crazy girl off me?"

"I lost my powers when the charm was destroyed, you doofus," the girl, Gwen, said.

Dor looked from the red-headed girl to the boy's green panties, and back again. "You know him?"

Gwen nodded. "This is my annoying cousin, Benjamin Tennyson."

"He had assumed the shape of a vulpimancer and was stalking up behind you." Dor wondered if she'd stumbled upon a magical sort of sibling rivalry.

Gwen frowned. "Grandpa Max told you to stop using your powers to pick on me, Ben."

"I wasn't picking on you," Ben objected.

Dor spanked him and the crack of her palm on his butt bounced through the trees. "It's an extraordinarily bad idea to lie while being spanked," Dor said.

"Owie! Okay! I'm sorry for... for using my powers to pick on you."

Gwen giggled. Dor looked at her, and Gwen blushed and put her hands behind her back.

"He's your cousin," Dor said. "And you're the one he misbehaved against. I took it upon myself to spank him because I thought he was attacking a defenseless child. But you don't seem defenseless to me."

Gwen shrugged. "I can hold my own, but if you want to keep spanking that brat, I'm all for it."

"Gwen! No! Please," Ben cried out. "I'm sorry. Make her let me go."

Gwen sighed. "All right, fine." She looked at Dor. "I appreciate you coming to my defense, but you should probably let him go now."

Dor did so and stood, backing up a couple steps in case the boy turned into a vulpimancer again. Ben hopped to his feet and rubbed his bottom vigorously before blushing hard and pulling up his pants, muttering. Dor decided not to listen to hard lest she felt compelled to spank him again. It really wasn't her place and she felt a little bad.

"Don't' worry about it," Gwen said quietly while Ben groused. "Ever since he found that alien watch, he's been more full of himself than usual. He deserved a smacked bottom. I'm Gwendolyn, by the way. You can call me Gwen."

"I'm Dorothy. You can call me Dor."

"Pleasure to meet you. So... you're a mage?"

Dor nodded. "Of a sort. I've just started learning about my powers."

"Well, what are you doing out here anyway?" Ben demanded. "I thought you were a badguy, like Hex. Magic is bad news."

"Not everyone with magic is a badguy, Ben," Gwen chided.

"It's not cool to go popping out of other people's watches," Ben said, tapping the device at his wrist, giving the circular part a twist.

Dor shrugged. "I really don't know how I ended up here. I was traveling L-Space, trying to planeswalk to a friend in New York. I didn't expect to end up in the middle of the woods."

"New York?" said Gwen. "You're way off the mark. This is Colorado."

Dor nodded. She felt way off the mark. She recognized Colorado as one of the states near the middle, but the sisters hadn't put much emphasis on teaching United States geography. Plus, this world felt different than the New York City where she'd met Jubilee. The flavor was off. "I don't even think I'm on the right Earth," Dor said.

"Right Earth?" said Gwen. "You mean there are other Earths?"

Dor nodded. "I don't suppose there's a library around here somewhere?"

"Yeah," said Ben sarcastically. "Just walk that way until you find a big tree. Then turn left until you find another big tree—"

"Oh, shut up, you dweeb," said Gwen. She took Dor's hand. "Come on. I'll introduce you to Grandpa Max. He'll know what to do."

Dor let Gwen lead her through the woods. Ben hurried to catch up.

Dor looked at the brown-haired boy. His cheeks were flushed, but he didn't look angry. Instead, he looked repentant. Dor bit her lip nervously. She was about to apologize when Ben cleared his throat.

"Um, Dor? Would it be okay if we didn't tell grandpa about me sneaking up on Gwen? He already think I'm being irresponsible with the watch."

Dor looked at the device strapped to the boy's wrist. It didn't look a time-keeping device to her, but she already knew sometimes familiar words had different meanings on different planes.

"Would he spank you again?" Dor asked.

"What? No way," said Ben. "Grandpa Max would never spank us."

Dor bit her lip again, certain she'd overstepped herself now. "I'm sorry for that," she said. "It wasn't my place."

"Sure it was!" said Gwen. "I thought it was great."

"No," said Ben. "It's not that. It's just..." he cleared his throat uncomfortably. "He wants me to be more responsible. I don't want to disappoint him."

Dor patted the boy's shoulder. "If you forgive me for spanking you out of turn, then I agree your grandfather need not know about your misbehavior."

Ben grinned up at her. "Oh, that's all right. You were just trying to defend a helpless little dweeb after all."

"I'm not helpless!" Gwen said. "Dor, would you spank him again please?"

Dor chuckled. "Only if he earns it."

They walked in silence for a while, then Ben said, "I guess I did kind of deserve it."

After a few minutes more, they emerged from the woods into a clearing where a portly older man in a loud red shirt sat at a camp fire, tending a cooking meal. Though Dor had recently eaten with Minwu and Li, the food smelled wonderful.

The rest of the clearing was taken up by a large vehicle, much like the ones she'd seen in Jubilee's New York City, but twice as tall and three times as long.

"Grandpa Max, we found someone in the woods!" said Gwen.

"She popped right out of my watch," said Ben.

Both children hurried eagerly to the man who stood, brushing off pants. Dor approached shyly.

"She's a mage, grandpa," said Gwen. "Like that guy Hex, but much nicer."

"Is that right?" He stepped forward and held out a hand. "I'm Max Tennyson. These are my grandchildren."

Dor's hand was enveloped in his and he shook firmly.

"My name is Dorothy Alice Wendy. But you can call me Dor."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Dor. Now, if you don't mind my asking, how is it a mage came to emerge from an alien device?"

Dor cleared her throat. "I'm not certain on that myself. You see, sir, I can travel between planes of existence."

"She said there's more than one version of Earth, grandpa," said Gwen. "Isn't that fascinating?"

Grandpa Max nodded. "It is." He gestured at Dor. "Please, continue."

"I get the impression it's not the same for all planeswalkers, but I travel the multiverse though a concept known as L-Space."

Grandpa Max nodded. "The idea that enough words concentrated in one place can bend reality."

Dor's eyebrows shot up. "You're familiar with L-Space?"

"Only the theory."

Dor was impressed. "But I don't know why that means I should have emerged from this device rather than where I was going. I was pulled off track. I've planeswalked without L-Space before, but that was planeswalking blind. This time I was trying to go somewhere specific and was trapped off course by a bunch of books describing alien species." Dor pointed at Ben's wrist. "But that device doesn't look like a library to me."

"But maybe it is," said Gwen, tone excited.

"Uh, no," said Ben. "It's a transformation doohickey."

"But maybe, if it holds the information of ten different aliens, it's enough like a library to mess up Dor's magic."

Dor pursed her lips in thought. "There's a lot more than ten," she said mildly.

But Ben and Gwen had begun bickering and didn't hear her.

"All right, that's enough," said Grandpa Max. "Let's eat and go to bed. The nearest library is in Grand Junction, a couple hours drive from here. I suppose that's where you'll want to go?" He looked at Dor.

Dor nodded shyly.

Dinner was a peculiar affair of fish patties between soft bread with vegetables and sauces she'd never had before. The children made faces at it, but Dor thought it was delicious, if odd.

"She can stay in the camper with me, Grandpa." Gwen said.

"That sounds fine," said Grandpa Max.

Max and Ben retired to the tent, and Gwen opened the door to the vehicle, the camper she'd called it.

"There's a foldout bed in the back," said Gwen, gesturing to the rear of the vehicle where a bed had been set up. "I can take the couch." She patted a narrow bench next to a small table.

"That doesn't look quite long enough for you," Dor said.

"It's all right," Gwen said. "I've slept on it before."

"I don't want to put you out of your bed."

"It's fine, really. I owe you one for smacking that brat's bottom."

Gwen grinned.

Dor blushed.

"Besides, you can do me a favor."

"What's that?"

"Could you teach me? To do magic, I mean."

Dor shrugged uncomfortably. "I don't know. I've only been at it for about six months now. As far as I know, the ability to use magic is inherent. I've had a few teachers, but only briefly and I am by no means not an expert. Do you think you have magic inherently?"

Gwen nodded excitedly. "On one of our adventures, I had this charm and it made me really lucky, but I felt something inside, you know? Something that wasn't the charm." She blushed and looked away. "Do you think that's possible?"

"I haven't the faintest idea," said Dor. "but I know where we can start."

Dor changed into her yellow Hufflepuff nightie while Gwen changed into a pair of pale blue pajamas. They sat together on the bed at the back of the vehicle, legs crossed, facing each other.

"From what I've learned, the basics of magic are about focus, imagination, and metaphor. How's your imagination?"

"Um. Good, I think?"

Dor nodded. "All right. I want you to close your eyes, take a deep breath, and imagine a room in your mind. It can be simple. It can be complex. Either way, it must be yours." Dor took a slow deep breath. It was interesting to her that twice in the past two days she was teaching someone to focus with the room in their mind, a technique she'd only recently learned and certainly hadn't mastered. "Breath in... imagine the room... breath out... Can you see it?"

"Sort of," said Gwen.

"It doesn't have to be perfect, it's just a metaphor," said Dor. "Now imagine in that room, something that symbolizes your magic. For me, it's a book, but for you it might be something else. Perhaps a candle flame. Or a bowl of water. Or..."

"What about a cat?"

Dor hadn't expected that, but she nodded. "All right. That cat, describe it to me."

"She's a black cat with bright green eyes, like mine. She's got a long tail that crooks like a question mark. Her paws are soft, but her claws are sharp."

"Excellent. Focus on the cat. Breathe in, slowly... Look into its eyes... Let the breath... out... slowly..."

For several moments, they breathed together slowly.

"Do you feel anything?" Dor asked. She waited several breaths before opening her eyes. Gwen was lying, curled on the bed, fast asleep.

* * *

In the morning, Grandpa Max fried up the left over fish burgers and brewed coffee. Dor availed herself of the burgers but was especially grateful for the coffee. The kids had some packaged snacks they shared. Dor got the impression from their surreptitious looks they weren't supposed to have it, but she didn't say anything. On the ride down from the mountain campground Dor sat in the back with Gwen and walked her though meditation while Ben sat up front with Grandpa Max.

Despite the rumble of the vehicle and the bumps in the road, they were able to focus their mind. Gwen described her black cat with green eyes and black fur.

"And a sheen of violet," Gwen added.

Dor let herself see the room in her mind, though she didn't go their fully. She could see her grimoire upon the table, though she didn't open it. She felt the tingle along her shoulders and the warmth in her chest, though she did not pull at her magic.

"Do you feel anything?" Dor asked. "For me it's a sort of tingle."

"It's like a word," said Gwen. "A word I can't quite remember, just on the tip of my tongue. Like if I'm trying to write an essay... Sometimes if I can go back to the beginning and try again, I can trick my brain into remembering. But It's just not... I can't quite..."

They kept at it for an hour or so before Gwen confessed she couldn't concentrate any more.

"I almost had it," she said, despondent.

"It's okay," said Dor. "A friend of mine, my first teacher, she told me I had to learn to control my magic, otherwise it would spill from me accidentally. Which is what happened. You are already learning, which means you're way ahead of me."

Gwen smiled.

Dor admired the view as they drove down from the pine-tree covered mountains, through canyons alongside a rushing river, and into a high scrubby desert. The canyons were tall and craggy with trees clinging here and there, the stratified rock blue and grey and red. The desert was dusty brown with dots of sage in green, yellow, and purple. From a distance, the town was a smudge of emerald hugging the shining ribbon of a river.

* * *

Grandpa Max found a sidestreet to park his large vehicle and they walked the block and a half to the Grand Junction central library.

"We're just dropping Dor off, right?" said Ben. "We're not actually going to go _in_ the library? It's summer break!"

"You don't like libraries?" said Dor.

Ben rolled his eyes.

"I can hardly believe he's my cousin," said Gwen.

"Come on, Ben, it won't hurt to look around. Besides, I want to make sure Dorothy gets off safely," Grandpa Max said.

"I appreciate that, but I'm sure everything will be fine," said Dor. Even so, she blushed warmly to hear the concern in his tone. They'd just met, but she wished he was _her_ grandfather.

On a grassy strip, in the shade of a large tree, a woman sat upon a spread blanket with a small child, enjoying a picnic. Behind them, the library was a sprawling, two story building with tall windows, a clock tower, and a sculpture at the entry that spun in the gentle desert breeze.

Dor was distracted by the furtive movement a young man in a black, hooded shirt approaching the mother and child. Something about the way he moved, the way he held his shoulders, the way he shifted his eyes, made her think he was up to no good. And a few moments later when he dashed up to the woman and snatched a bag from beside her, Dor knew she'd been right.

The woman gasped, startled.

"Hey, he just..." Dor said.

"I got it!" shouted Ben. He tapped at his device and twisted a dial; a circular section of the device popped up like a telescope. "Come on, XLR8, it's hero time!" He slammed the device with his other hand. In an explosion of green light, the untidy boy disappeared and in his place stood a tall crystalline golem. It was broad-shouldered, sharp-edged, and wore a black bodysuit that left its arms bare, with the green hourglass symbol upon its chest. The being was composed entirely of teal-colored crystal with a fin-like protrusion from the back of its head.

Ben, now a crystalline golem, looked down at himself and shrugged. "I can work with this."

The young man in the black hood sprinted away from the woman, bag tucked under his arm, the woman shouting after him, the child sobbing. But in his haste to get away, the thief hadn't realized he was charging almost right at a large, crystalline golem.

"Why does he call this one 'Accelerate'?" Dor asked.

Gwen snickered. "This one's Diamondhead. Ben doesn't know how to use that thing properly. He's always getting the wrong alien."

"Whatever, guys. I can handle this," said Diamondhead. He pointed at the young thief, just now noticing them. "Drop it!" Diamondhead shouted.

The thief, not much older than a boy really, skidded to a stop so fast he landed hard on his backside.

The arm Diamondhead used to point at the thief shifted and grew with a sound like a marble on glass. In moments, his hand was replaced with a long crystalline blade.

The sound sent a shiver down Dor's spine and across her shoulders and a faint pulsing buzz at the base of her skull. Dor closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying not to lose that feeling, trying to encourage it. In her mind's eye she saw her grimoire sitting closed on the table. And she saw a white sphere with an azure sheen upon the brown leather. She reached for it and it fell into her hand like a ripe pear. It was smooth and cool and heavy and in the next moment the sphere resolved itself into a playing card.

* * *

 **Ben's Petrosapien** **2W**

 **Elemental Creature – Earth Golem**

W: This gets first strike until end of turn.

U: This gets hexproof until end of turn.

2/5

* * *

"Leave the purse and get out of here," said Diamondhead.

Dor blinked and watched as the young thief did as he was told, running pell-mell away from the alien form Ben called Diamondhead.

In a muted flash of green light, Ben transformed back to his human form. He planted his fists on his hips and turned to face them. "How about that? I just stopped a purse snatcher."

Grandpa Max nodded. "No one got hurt and no buildings were set on fire. That was well done, Ben."

Dor had to agree. The boy had done well.

Ben took the purse back to the woman, who looked equal parts grateful and nonplussed.

"Hey, what's that?" said Gwen?

Dor looked at the girl and saw she was pointing at Dor's hand. When she looked, she found the playing card in her mind was held in her fingers. It was just like when she'd held Twilight's Blink after returning to St. Bridget's from Equestria. She held it up to look at it. It showed Benjamin Tennyson in his Diamondhead form, fists on hips, chest forward, expression proud. Like the others, it felt thicker and heavier than it was. It felt smooth, like glass, and tasted of crystal.

"It's a spell," said Dor.

"A spell to do what? Transform like Ben?'

"I don't think so," said Dor. "I haven't seen one quite like this before."

"May I..." Gwen held out her hand shyly.

"Certainly." Dor handed the card over.

When she took it, Gwen shivered. "I can feel... something. It's not quite right. I mean, it's not quite right for me. It's almost like a sound, just a bit to low to be heard."

She handed it back to Dor and when Dor took it, the card dissolved into sparkles of white light with hints of blue.

"Well, now the heroics are out of the way, shall we go inside?" said Grandpa Max.

They found a quiet corner in the basement of the library.

"Travel safe," said Gwen.

"Yeah, good luck," said Ben.

Grandpa Max gave her a firm nod.

Dor approached a bookshelf, put her hand on it, and felt the spark of warmth at her chest. The books parted before her as though by magic.


	3. Xavier's Institute, Part 1

Jubilee understood that her first mission as an X-Man was going to be simple and safe. She understood they wouldn't send her up against the Brotherhood of Mutants when she was just fourteen years old. She even agreed it was safer, more responsible, to keep junior members on low risk missions. Even so, she couldn't help but be disappointed at how boring this mission was.

Wandering through an old office building that might have, at one point, been a Weapon X facility, was mind-numbing. All they'd found so far was a bunch of empty computer desks, abandoned cords, bits of trash, and an unsolved rubiks cube.

Squirrel Girl had claimed the rubiks cube.

They were looking for anything left behind. A stray USB drive, or an old floppy disk, or maybe even a hardcopy of something printed on paper. But so far, there'd been no luck. The building was so boring, Jean had let them split up. Squirrel Girl and Shadowcat had taken the offices on the left while Jubilee had taken the offices on the right.

Jean Grey was their field captain on this so-called mission and Jubilee could feel her telepathic touch at the back of her mind. Jean was good about not invading privacy with her telepathic gifts, but Jubilee knew if she needed her fellow junior X-Men, all she had to do was think it.

Jubilee checked the underside of every desk of the cubical farm, but found nothing that could hold data. No computer towers, no thumb drives. Crammed in one corner of the room was a narrow closest which Jubilee fully expected to find empty but for half a broom handle, but when she opened the door she found it crammed with three ring binders. Eyes going wide, she pulled one from the shelf and found it full of paper printed with rows of numbers. Accounting reports maybe. Jubilee had no idea whether or not accounting reports would be any use to the X-Men, but they'd been told to find any information, no matter how mundane. The Professor had friends in legal circles who could make life difficult for Weapon X if they could only find proof of their existence.

She was about to call to Jean with her thoughts when the carefully shelved binders rippled and parted and a girl stumbled through.

* * *

Dor squeezed through the narrow corridor in her mind, lined with thick, smooth-spined books of a kind she was unfamiliar, wondering what kind of library she'd find herself in. When it finally opened up, it was a surprise and she nearly fell, but a friendly hand caught her.

Dor smiled when she saw it was Jubilee.

The other girl was dressed in the same thick bodysuit Scott and Jean had worn when they'd rescued them from the mechanical spiders in New York City. The encircled X at her left breast was pink, as was the detailing at her shoulders and collar. She wore a bright yellow jacket over her uniform and a pair of bright pink spectacles. Dor wasn't sure, but she'd thought Jubilee had grown taller since last she'd see her.

Jubilee pushed her spectacles up on her head. She blinked at Dor several times before breaking into a wide grin. "I never thought I'd see you again. I thought that other girl had taken you away forever."

"Nope. I got rid of her. Sort of."

"You can tell me all about when we get back to the Institute," said Jubilee. "Come on. I want to introduce you to the others."

"What is this place?" said Dor, as Jubilee led her though the room.

"We think it's an old Weapon X facility. We're looking for anything they might have left behind. These binders are the first thing we found. That makes this mission doubly successful." She winked at Dor. "Hey guys!" Jubilee called once they reached the hallway. "I found someone and something."

"Is it someone to fight?" came a pugnacious voice from down the hallway.

"I thought this facility was empty," said another, milder voice.

Dor looked down the hallway to find a pair of girls coming toward them. One was slim with brunette hair pulled back in a simple tail. The other was short but thick with broad shoulders and chubby cheeks. Further, she had a pair of tall, furry ears poking out from her rusty brown hair, and a thick squirrel's tail poofing out from her backside. Both wore the same black bodysuit Jubilee did. The girl with the tail had green detailing, while the slimmer girl had yellow.

"Stand down, Squirrel Girl," said Jubilee. "This is my friend, Dor. I met her when we were running away from the sentinels a few months ago. She was kidnapped by an interdimensional pyrokinetic. But she's back!"

"Aw man," said Squirrel Girl, slapping her fist into one hand. "I was hoping we'd find someone to punch."

"This is an important mission, even if we don't fight anyone." The new voice came from behind and Dor turned to find Jean Grey just as she remembered her, tall and beautiful with wavy auburn hair Dor could only aspire to, bright green eyes, and a poised expression. Her black uniform was detailed in blue.

"Dorothy. It's good to see you again. Are you being pursued?"

Dor shook her head. "I was kind of hoping you all could help me with something, but it's not dire. And you look like you're busy."

"Also," said Jubilee, "I found some binders. They look like accounting reports, so..." She shrugged.

"Well done, Jubilee," said Jean, smiling.

"Great," said Squirrel Girl. "Binders."

"At least I found something," said Jubilee, defensive.

Dor frowned at Squirrel Girl, but the other girl grinned. "We'll show those Weapon X fools whose boss. By stealing the accounting binders!" And she struck a foolish pose.

Shadowcat and Jubilee giggled.

Jean smiled. "Every little bit helps. It's at least as important to fight Weapon X legislatively as it is physically." Jean put her hands to her forehead and closed her eyes. "Storm. We're done searching the building. We've found some documents and a friendly. Is the Blackbird ready?"

Between the five of them and some abandoned cardboard boxes, they managed to get all the binders downstairs and to the front door in one trip. The sky was overcast and Dor could smell rain on the air. A blacktop courtyard spread from the front door to a ten foot tall wire fence with a wide opening for allowing vehicles. Beyond spread a city with a mass of clumped towers shrouded in the mist of coming rain and distance. Dor didn't know if this was New York City or some other massive municipality of the far flung future.

"Storm says she'll be here in two minutes," said Jean.

Dor's attention was caught by a man rounding a corner in the distance. He had a lean, hard look to him, with hair shorn short. He wore a dark purple, long-sleeved shirt under a dark harness and wide belt. His pants were dark and worn. He picked up the pace when he saw Dor looking at him, loping with an easy grace.

"Um, is Storm a tall man in a purple shirt?" Dor asked.

Jean looked from the sky to Dor. "What?"

Dor pointed and the junior X-Men girls looked to see the man hurrying toward them.

Jean's eyes went wide. She took several steps toward the man. "All of you stay behind me." She put one hand to her head and thrust the other at the man. "Stop where you are."

The man ignored her warning. He was nearly to the fence. At the pace he'd set he would be upon them soon. Jean made a fist of her hand and jerked it to the left. A panel of fences set upon wheels slid across the opening in the fence. The man leapt, clearing the fence like it was nothing.

Dor took a step back, shoulders tingling, and drew her wand. Next to her, Jubilee took her hand, squeezing tight. Dor's cheeks warmed and her grimoire opened in her mind.

Jean took another step forward.

The man smiled without humor and spread his hands, as though to show he was no threat. "Easy, ladies. My employers simply want to talk."

Movement on the left caught Dor's attention and she looked to find more men approaching from the other side, all dressed in dark uniforms and helmets. They did not leap the fence, but they began cutting through the wire.

"More on our right," Squirrel Girl said, voice high.

"Storm's almost here," said Jean. "Just stay together."

Jubilee squeezed Dor's hand tighter. Sparks flickered along her fingers.

"So, you'll come quietly, yes?" said the man.

Jean thrust her hand at him and he stumbled back several steps.

When he regained his feet, he was smiling. "Excellent." In a quick, practiced movement, he drew a broad bladed knife from the harness on his chest.

Dor reacted. "Expelliarmus." She flicked her wand and dart of light struck the man, knocking the knife from his hand.

He looked stunned at first, then his smile broadened. He loped toward Jean in a strange sort of weaving pattern. Jean took a defensive stance but struck with a balled fist. The air rippled as her telekinetic strike moved the air, but the man dodged aside and darted in, sweeping low and taking Jean's feet out from under her. He was fast and agile and skilled.

Squirrel Girl pounced, hackles bristly, wrapping her arms around the man's neck, but he slipped and tumbled and tossed the girl through the air to the blacktop where she tumbled and yelped. The man looked up at Dor and Jubilee from his crouched position.

Jubilee squeezed Dor's hand tighter and the warmth in Dor's cheeks spread through her, growing. She felt like warm wax, melting from within, like clay to be sculpted, like her body had become light.

The gold-bordered Gems' Fusion flickered through her mind.

* * *

 **Gems' Fusion** **URW**

 **Tribal Sorcery – Gem**

Exile two target creatures you control. If you do, create an X/Y creature token where X is the sum of the exiled creatures' power and Y the sum of their toughness. It has all colors, types, and rules text of the exiled creatures. When this token leaves the battlefield, return the exiled cards to the battlefield under their owner's control.

* * *

She only had a moment, but she took it. She took it to take a breath and know herself. She was different than ever she'd been. Taller, fuller, stronger. Photokinetic sparks danced along her skin. Spells shuffled through her mind. She stretched one pair of arms over her head and cupped her hands, feeling the sparks dance between her palms. She stretched her second pair of arms to the side and felt the light of her body manifest in her grip as a pair of wands: pine, unicorn hair, quite flexible. She opened all four of her eyes as wide as they would go, peering through the pink glass of her shades. The black bodysuit of the X-Men uniform held her new body like it was tailored to her.

The man in the purple shirt backed up several steps, eyes wide.

It began to rain.

The man attacked in a swirling series of kicks, leaping and spinning with adeptness that surpassed normal skill. The woman, not quite Dor, not quite Jubilee, moved as Kya had taught her, and pulled the rain from the air around her, moving her arms in broad sweeps, batting aside the man's kicks with streamers of water. With her upper arms, the flung whistling sparks at the man, impressed by his ability to weave and duck. His skill would soon overwhelm her powers. She needed to do something different.

With a breath and a thought, she teleported behind him in a crack of magic and purple sparkles.

The man intuited her position and swung about with a kick aimed high. It was far off the mark, and she flung another handful of sparks at the man, waiting for him to dodge aside, then flicked one of her wands. A lash of sparking flame sprung forth and caught him around the ankle. He shouted in stunned pain.

She grinned. It felt good to win.

A great whirring pressure pushed at her back and she stumbled forward, losing her grip on her spells. The streamers of water, sparks of light, and lash of fire all dissolved into mana and flickered away.

"Everyone on the Blackbird!" Jean Grey's mental connection to the back of Jubilee's mind persisted, shouting both vocally and mentally.

Part of her knew she should get on the plane, that it was time to escape, but another part of her wanted to defeat him, to show him he couldn't mess with them, that they weren't afraid. She knew escape was a simple sprint behind her. She could see the men in black tactical armor coming through the fence on the other side of her adversary.

The woman settled into a new waterbending stance as the man got to his feet.

"Get on the plane, now!"

A whipping gale burst from behind and above. And a woman in the black armored uniform of the X-Men, pure white hair a short tuft of mohawk, cape billowing, soared overhead. Lightning flashed around her, striking at the men in tactical armor coming through the fence. Whirlwinds danced at her beck, driving the men back.

Her shoulders tingled and her mind filled.

A shot rang out.

The woman who was half Dorothy, half Jubilation, looked down from the fury of Storm to the man in the purple shirt. He had a pistol aimed at her, still smoking, a grin of triumph tugging at the stubble on his chin. With a flick of one wand, she disarmed him, with the flick of the other she sent him sprawling with a fresh ribbon of water pulled from the rain. She looked down at her chest to where she should have felt pain, but there was nothing.

"Jean said get on the plane."

To her left stood Katherine Pryde, the Shadowcat, hand on her arm, and the woman realized Shadowcat had saved her life, made her intangible, so the bullet passed straight through her.

"Right." She let Shadowcat keep a hand on her so they would remain intangible as they turned toward the large black jet, the Blackbird. It's bay door was open, allowing them to hurry aboard. The plane lifted off before they were fully aboard.

Dor felt her chest pounding, panic at her shoulders. They'd nearly been killed.

Jubilee took a deep breath, trying to calm them, but...

In a flash of light, the fusion ended and the girls tumbled to the floor of the plane.

"On your feet, hero," said Squirrel Girl, pulling Dor off her backside and to a chair against one wall of the aircraft. She pushed Dor into the chair. "Hold still, I'll strap you in." A thick heavy harness was buckled over her chest. Dor blinked, dazed. She had been someone else. Someone powerful. Someone confident. It had felt good and she wanted to do it again. But she knew they'd disobeyed Jean Grey, their field captain, and there would be a price to pay for that. She looked to the other side of the aircraft's cabin to where Jubilee was similarly strapped in by Shadowcat. Jubilee met her gaze with a rueful grin.

Storm, the tall, dark-skinned, white-mohawked powerhouse of the X-Men flew into the cabin of the Blackbird with a gust of wind, eyes clouded and sparking. She strode to the head of the cockpit where Jean sat at the controls. The woman spared a glance for Dor, expression firm. Dor looked away, blushing.

* * *

At Xavier's Institute, Jubilee, Shadowcat, and Squirrel Girl showed her through the halls of the lower levels, which were austere polished metal. They lead her to a large, tiled, shower room where they stripped off their armored uniforms and hung them in narrow, metal wardrobes before turning on a communal shower.

The shower was simple and utilitarian. It's wasn't as magical as the bathrooms at Hogwarts, but it was far better than anything Dor experienced at St. Bridget's.

None of them seemed embarrassed to shower together, so Dor swallowed her own embarrassment and undressed. She joined them in the tiled cubicle, shyly curious. She'd seen Isabel, Sandra, and Aelf naked at Hogwarts, Isabel especially, but this was more blatant. Jubilee was slim and boyish. Shadowcat was thin but curvy. Squirrel Girl was thick and chubby, her tail hanging heavy with water in moments. She had a thick tuft of hair at her loins that tapered in a thin line to just below her belly button. Shadow at had a few brunette curls. Jubilee was as smooth and hairless as Dor. Dor tried not to let her eyes linger.

"There's an extra bed in our suite," said Jubilee over the pounding water. "You can stay with us tonight. If the Professor says it's okay, that is. But I don't see why not, you helped us with a successful mission."

"Was it?" asked Dor. "Did we get the books?"

"Yup," said Squirrel Girl. She worked shampoo from a wall mounted dispenser into the fur of her tail vigorously. "Shadowcat comes through again. She's got a head on her shoulders, that one."

Shadowcat blushed. "I just grabbed the boxes and phased them onto the Blackbird. You two are the real heroes, fighting off the mercenary."

"What was that anyway?" said Squirrel Girl. "Is that your power, to combine forms with other mutants?"

Dor shook her head. "It's a spell. I learned it on another Earth."

"What?" said Squirrel Girl, planting her fists on her soapy hips.

"You can travel the multiverse?" said Shadowcat.

"She'll tell you all about it when we're upstairs," said Jubilee. She looked at Dor. "Won't you? I really wanna know what's happened since that rooftop."

Dor nodded. "Of course.

She steam from the shower filled their little cubicle, making it warm and close and comfortable. When they were done, Jubilee found them some towels, three for Squirrel Girl, and they all got dressed. The others dressed in casual clothes, denim pants and t-shirts. Shadowcat's was black with a yellow X inscribed in a circle on her left breast. It reminded Dor of a heraldic symbol.

Dor elected to wear her beige button up and black skirt from her magical laundry bag.

They led Dor to the upper floors, which were dark, polished wood and richly appointed. Shadowcat, Squirrel Girl, and Jubilee shared a suite on the third floor of the dormitories at Xavier's Institute for the Gifted. Each bedroom had two beds, two chest of drawers, and two desks, and the rooms were connected by a shared washroom.

Once they were settled in, Dor told her story from the beginning, Elmira Gulch arriving at St. Bridget's Orphanage. When she was finished she looked at Jubilee.

"Do you suppose we're in trouble with Jean?"

"What for?" said Squirrel Girl. "You guys kicked ass!"

"We kind of, deliberately, disobeyed orders," said Jubilee.

"Oh," said Squirrel Girl in sympathy, rubbing the backside of her denim shorts.

Not long after, a knock at their door heralded the entry of Jean Grey. She'd changed from her uniform into a pair of denim pants and a long-sleeved blue blouse. Her long, auburn hair was damp and pulled into a messy pony tail, and even that looked good.

"Did Storm send you to spank us?" Jubilee asked.

Dor blushed, both at the mention of spanking at the other girl's frankness.

Jean put her hands behind her back. "She sent me to make sure you three remembered to write your accounting of the mission."

"Oh yeah, forgot about that part," Squirrel Girl groused.

"Writing an accurate report is important," Shadowcat said.

Jean looked at Dor. "And she sent me to tell you the Professor says you're welcome to stay. I told him about our first meeting and today and both he and Storm are impressed with your loyalty to a friend you've only barely met."

Dor blushed harder.

Jean took a deep breath. "As to your spanking," she hesitated and the room filled with tension. Jean cleared her throat. "Storm left it up to me, and I'm leaving it up to you."

Jubilee sighed gustily. "Well, shit." She looked at Dor. "I guess we're getting spanked."

Dor nodded. She couldn't say they didn't deserve it. Jean had been clear about falling back and they'd definitely disobeyed. Even though they had been sharing the body of a powerful, confident woman, they should have followed Jean's instruction.

Jean took a deep breath, like she was about to object, but then she nodded. She stepped back, out of the doorway and to the side, making way for them.

Dor stood, hands folded at her waist.

"Good luck," said Squirrel Girl thickly.

Shadowcat nodded.

Jubilee led Dor out of them room and down the hall where she waited for Jean, who opened the door on a small study. There was a desk with a mechanical device and a lit screen, a bookshelf packed with books, and a chair.

Jean entered and picked up her straight-backed, armless chair, setting it in the center of her little study. It looked sturdy, a good spanking chair. Dor wondered how many of the other girls at the Institute had been spanked with the help of this chair. She wondered how many more would be. She couldn't help but be reminded of the stout chair Sister Mary Margaret had used as her spanking chair. But Jean was nothing like Sister Mary Margaret. Like Minwu, Jean Grey was like a loving sister and, though Dor wasn't looking forward to her impending spanking, she didn't fear it either.

Jean sat. "Dorothy. You're not part of the X-Men. Our disciplinary methods probably aren't what you're used to..."

Dor shook her head. "I heard your instruction just as well as Jubilee. We both chose to disobey. If she deserves a spanking, so do I."

Jean nodded. "Then I take it neither of you needs to be scolded on why it's important to follow orders?"

Both shook their heads.

"Very well. Jubilee..."

Jubilee stepped forward and unbuttoned her denim shorts. She pushed them to her knees where they fell to her ankles and she could step out of them. She was such a fiery personality, Dor was surprised to realize how small she was. Standing in a worn old t-shirt and bright pink panties, X-Men X prominent upon the seat, she looked awfully small.

Dor sniffled, fighting back preemptive tears.

Jubilee went to Jean and bent over the tall girl's lap.

Jean didn't waste time. She pulled Jubilee's panties down, baring her slim bottom and held her securely around the waist. She slapped her hand against Jubilee's bare bottom and Dor was surprised by how mild it seemed. She'd expected Jean to be as proficient a spanker as Minwu. But as the auburn haired girl continued, Dor realized Jean's spanking was faster than it was hard, that the quick, sharp spanks were just as effective at setting a bottom afire. She watched as Jubilee squirmed and whimpered then kicked and groaned, then bucked and cried, her bottom a bright scarlet.

When Jean stopped, Jubilee hopped to her feet and rubbed her bottom vigorously, tears streaming down her face. She went to a corner without being told and stood there, crying.

Before Jean could tell her to, Dor wiped the tears she'd already shed from her cheeks and approached. She unzipped her beige skirt and let it fall to her feet, kicking it aside, and lay over Jean's lap. Jean didn't have a broad lap, but still Dor found that, once her palms were flat on the floor, her tippy toes barely touched the other side. Her damp auburn braids crumpled to the floor around her head. Jean's grip on her waist was firm. Her fingers at the waist of her panties were gentle.

When her bottom was bare, Dor's tears flowed freely. She didn't try to stop them.

The first several spanks were a stinging flurry. Dor tensed and tried not to cry out, tried not to squirm. She was successful for a while, but soon the sting built to a burn and Dor knew she'd be no better at taking a spanking from Jean than she had from Sister Mary Margaret or Minwu or Professor Sparkle. Soon she squirmed and cried under Jean's fiery palm.

When it was over, Jean hugged them both and they redressed. Jubilee took Dor's hand as they went back down the hall to her room. Squirrel Girl and Shadowcat were waiting for them and there was another round of hugging.

"Jean's great," said Squirrel Girl. "I love her like she were my own big sister. But she's a mean spanker."

"No she's not," Dor said. Her tone was harsher than she'd meant. The other girls looked at her askance. "I'm sorry. I just... At the orphanage, Sister Mary Margaret was a mean spanker. She spanked for no reason and she never hugged me afterward. Jean is lovely."

"Oh," said Squirrel Girl. "I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that she's, uh, really good at it. I'm sorry, Dor."

Dor shook her head. "I misunderstood."

Shadowcat hugged her again and rubbed her back. "I'm sorry you had to go through that. Sounds awful."

Squirrel Girl cleared her throat. "Our little Kitty's never been spanked."

"That's not true," Shadowcat said, tone defensive.

Jubilee and Squirrel Girl looked at her in stunned silence.

Shadowcat blushed and hunched her shoulders.

After several moments when no one said anything, Dor cleared her throat. "Do... do you want to share the story?"

Shadowcat grinned. "A few months ago, I... I might have used my powers to sneak into Kurt's room and throw all his underwear in the pool."

Jubilee's eyes went wide.

Squirrel Girl snorted. "I'd wondered who'd done that!"

"It was revenge for his teleporting into the changing room that time. Remember?"

Squirrel girl nodded. "I heard Cyc lit his butt up good for that one."

Shadowcat nodded. "Jean figured out it was me and I couldn't lie to her." She sighed. "So she spanked me, pulled down my panties and everything. I totally deserved it, but it was totally worth it."

They chatted into the evening and until it grew late and they decided to turn in. Shadowcat and Squirrel Girl went through the shared bathroom to their own bedroom. Dor and Jubilee changed into their nighties. Dor sneaked a peak at Jubilee and blushed. Lying in bed, bottom warm, sleep claimed her quickly.


	4. Xavier's Institute, Part 2

Dor dreamed of the room in her mind.

A green bound book with the black and green hourglass symbol of Ben Tennyson's alien device sat on the table in the room in her mind. Under the symbol was a single word: Petrosapien. It was the alien form Ben called Diamondhead, the same Dor now had access to in her grimoire.

 _Petrosapiens are a species of silicon-based lifeforms from the planet Petropia. There are two subspecies: the surface Petrosapiens and their Subsapien ancestors. Both species are distantly related to the Antrosapiens._

 _Petrosapiens are composed of a diamond-like material ranging in color from blue to green. They are, on average, 2 meters tall. They have four digits on their hands and none on their feet. Surface Petrosapiens are lean and thin, with square bodies and limbs. Subsapiens, are large with wide bodies with thick limbs. Some Subsapiens have crystal growths on their foreheads._

Dor could have sat and read about petrosapiens for hours on end. Perhaps she did. But in the way of dreams, after several pages, Dor found the green book had become her grimoire. The playing cards in their translucent pockets had shifted again. A new gold-bordered playing card had joined Gems' Fusion.

 **Storm's Salvo** **UUR**

 **Tribal Sorcery – Mutant Instant**

Choose one or both:

· This deals 3 damage to any target.

· Return target creature or artifact to its owner's hand.

In the art, Storm hovered against an overcast sky, cape abillow, mohawk windblown, eyes like ice and lightning at her fingertips. She was proud and powerful and Dor remembered what that felt like. She wanted to feel that way again. The tingle of magic along her shoulders intensified. The gold-bordered card was in her fingers, smooth and cool, buzzing like lightning. She knew all it would take was for her to channel her power down her arm and through the card and she could manifest the power of Storm.

"Please don't do that, Dorothy."

Dor blinked, casting the vestiges of the dream from her. She sat in the room in her mind, Storm's Salvo in hand. She'd been about to cast the spell. She could feel herself, lying still and quiet in the extra bed in Jubilee's room and realized how disastrous it would have been to send wind and lightning about the small space.

"There we are. Thank you for waking up."

Dor looked from the card to a man sitting across from her at the table in the room in her mind. He was an older gentleman with a smooth pate and a patient smile.

"You're the Professor, aren't you?"

He nodded. "Charles Xavier. Pleasure to meet you, Dorothy."

"Thank you for letting me stay in your home, sir."

"Certainly. And thank you for making sure my junior X-Men were unharmed today."

Dor blushed. Surely the Professor knew Jean had spanked them this evening for disobeying orders. And yet he praised her. It was an interesting dichotomy, and not unwelcome.

"I hope you'll forgive the intrusion," the Professor continued. "I don't lightly enter others' minds."

"Not at all," said Dor. "I don't like casting spells accidently."

"I'll let you get back to sleep then. Would you like me to help you on your way?"

"You can do that? Yes, sir, that'd be lovely. But, may I ask a favor first?"

The Professor looked surprised, but nodded. "Very well."

"I've, uh, inherited a trove of stolen artifacts and I want to return them. But I don't know which version of which world they belong to. A friend of mine on another world suggested a telepath might help figure out how to read these cards." She opened her grimoire to the pages of artifacts, full art, no text but for their titles, and pushed the book toward him.

The Professor's expression turned quizzical. "Isn't this a fascinating puzzle…" He spent several moments that might have been minutes, that might have been longer, carefully turning the pages with his slender-fingered hands. After a time, he looked at her. "Dorothy. I'd like to think on this for a time, if I may."

"Of course," said Dor. "Thank you."

He smiled at her gently, the way she imagined a kind grandfather might, and Dor slipped back through the books in her mind, dreaming of carefully organized shelves in dim hallways and quiet whispers.

* * *

For the first thirteen years of her life, Dor had dreamed of impossible people in impossible places doing impossible things. But since tumbling off the roof at St. Bridget's and slipping through the Blind Eternities, those dreams had stopped. When she woke in the morning, Jubilee breathing gently in her bed nearby, Dor remembered a dream of a long library in a dark castle with a dark master. The memory made her shiver when she woke, laying still and quite in her borrowed bed.

She slipped from bed, and made her way to the shared bathroom. Dor got undressed and checked her backside in the mirror. It was unblemished, no sign of spanking. She took a quick, hot shower and dried off with a towel stacked on the counter. When she emerged, Jubilee was sitting up in bed, a small, tablet like device in her hands.

Jubilee looked up at Dor. "Oh, good. I need to get in there before Squirrel Girl…"

But the other entrance to the bathroom opened and the chubby girl with the furry pointed ears and big furry tail entered. Her eyes were squinty and her cheeks puffy and she looked cranky. "Mornin'," she growled, before closing the door firmly and clicking the lock.

Jubilee sighed. "Guess I'll get my shower after breakfast."

They got dressed, Dor from her magical laundry bag, Jubilee from her chest of drawers. Jubilee selected a pair of bright green panties, the X inscribed circle prominent upon the seat. Dor felt a twinge of jealousy.

It seemed everywhere she went, people had symbols to identify them. The Hufflepuffs' badger. Ben Tennyson's green hourglass. The X-Men's simple X. Twilight Sparkle had her symbol emblazoned upon her flank. Dor had felt welcomed by Minwu, the Changs, the Hufflepuffs, and Jubilee, but it was a stark reminder she had no family name, no symbol of her own.

"Jubilee, can I ask, did the Institute provide your clothes?"

"Sure," said Jubilee. "I was running away, remember? I had nothing. And the sentinels wrecked my room. The Bookcliffs didn't want anything to do with me after that. So everything I've got, the Professor's given me. Even my undies." She slapped her own bottom playfully. "But that's all right. They're great here, Dor. Honestly. Even though there are occasional spankings."

Dor nodded.

"Hey, do you have enough clothes?" Jubilee asked, concerned. "I'll bet they've got some your size. We can ask Jean. She took me to a big sort of closet when I first arrived."

After some rigmarole of getting ready for the day, the girls took Dor down to the dining hall. Nothing could compare to the splendor of Hogwarts but the mansion in which Xavier's Institute was housed was well-appointed by the standards of Dor's time. In fact, though this Earth was far in the future from hers, she got the impression the mansion dated back to her time if not earlier.

The dining hall was utilitarian, with long, plain tables and a large kitchen from which they could scoop food, already cooked, onto their plates. Dor selected scrambled eggs and crispy bacon and flat cakes with syrup. She got a large mug and filled it with coffee from a steaming pot.

They found their way to a table where Jubilee introduced her to a slew of other junior X-Men. There was Bobby Drake, Iceman, a handsome blond boy with warm blue eyes. Betsy Braddock, Psylock, a pale girl with tilted eyes and long, dark purple hair. Remy LeBeau, Gambit, a tall, charming boy with black and red eyes. Rhane Sinclare, Wolfsbane, a shaggy girl with brown hair and pronounced canines. And on it went: Nightcrawler and Rogue and Colossus and Siryn, and after a while Dor had a hard time keeping them all straight.

And each of them made her feel welcome.

They shook her hand or patted her back or smiled good-naturedly. Some were rowdy, some shy, some kind, some aloof, but none made her uncomfortable or looked down on her. They all assumed she was the newest addition to the X-Men. It was not unlike being welcomed into the Hufflepuffs or invited to a dueling club. She mentally chided herself for having felt like she didn't belong.

They had finished breakfast and deposited their plates in the kitchen when Jean and Scott approached them. Even out of uniform, Scott wore a pair of ruby red spectacles. Dor wondered if it was part of his being a mutant. No mutant she'd met so far seemed to have anything in common other than the label.

Scott smiled and shook her hand. "Nice job yesterday. If you stick around this time, we'll teach you how to follow orders."

Dor smiled shyly.

"Dorothy, the Professor asked me to speak with you," said Jean. "He has assigned me to help you with your mental puzzle. He says it'll be good practice for me. But before that, I'm to give you a tour of the Institute."

A chime rang through the halls and those not already wrapping up their breakfast hurried to do so. Scott clapped his hands and chivied the other students good-naturedly. When everyone was on their way, Scott turned to Jean.

"Are we still on for the Danger Room this afternoon?" He sounded hopeful.

Jean blushed and nodded. "It will depend on how my morning with Dorothy goes, but I'm planning on it, yes."

Scott smiled, his own cheeks coloring faintly. "Good. Excellent. See you there."

When Scott was gone, Dor grinned at Jean. Jean winked at her.

Jean lead Dor through the expansive hallways of the mansion while explaining that Professor Charles Xavier had founded the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youth to help young mutants learn to control their gifts and as refuge against a world that viewed mutants with, at best, suspicion. She explained that, at 16 years old, she and Scott were the eldest of the students and had been elected student co-presidents. She showed her through the dormitory wings and the classrooms. Though the teachers were all busy, Jean pointed out Angel, a fair-haired man with great white wings who taught Mathematics and Business; Beast, a hulking, blue-furred man who taught Science; Logan, a gruff man who taught Physical Education and Combat Basics; and Storm, who taught Global Studies.

Storm looked up as the girls peered into her classroom. In dark slacks and a pale grey blazer, she looked far less intimidating than she had in battle. She even gave them a small smile.

Next, Jean showed Dor to a large supply closet. "Jubilee said you might not have enough clothes," she explained. Jean helped Dor pick through the stacks of clothing. The t-shirts and skirts were easy, but finding the right kind of denim pants, bluejeans Jean called them, required several rounds of trying them on. Jean also helped her pick out a variety of brassieres, some cute and lacey, some plain and utilitarian, some firm and snug. Dor hadn't known such a variety existed. Finally there were the panties in all shades of colors, each with the circle-inscribed X either subtly upon their elastic waistbands or prominent upon their seats. Dor chose some of each in purple.

Dor was embarrassed to change in front of the tall girl. Jean was extraordinarily pretty and Dor felt very plain next to her. She changed shyly as Jean continued to root about in the clothes, and an hour or so later she had a neat stack of brand clothing.

Finally, Jean took Dor to the library, the same library Dor had seen when she'd first walked through L-Space. There were rows of shelves on either side with tables and chairs in the center and tall windows along the back wall. Jean lead Dor to a small side room. She fiddled with a panel on the wall, diming the lights. The room reminded Dor of the study room she'd used at Hogwarts and the one she and Twilight Sparkle has used at Canterlot. She was beginning to wonder if every proper library had such a room.

Jean kicked off her shoes and sat near the center of the room, legs crossed, and Dor did the same, tucking her charcoal grey Hogwarts skirt under her backside. She blushed to show off her bare knees, but kind of hoped Jean would notice. The thought made her blush harder. Surely the older girl was interested in the painfully handsome Scott Summers. Besides, Dor had feelings for Kya.

"Dorothy, before we begin, I have to apologize," said Jean.

Dor cleared her throat and tried to focus. "To me? What for?"

"That night, a few months ago, on the rooftop. We should have fought harder for you. _I_ should have fought harder for you. Scott and I, it was one of our first real missions. We were sent to rescue a single mutant girl from the sentinels. When there were two of you, I… panicked. So when the pyrokinetic arrived to take you away… Between me and Cyclops and Storm, we could have fought her off. We could have protected you. But I told the others to hold off. I was afraid of the complication."

Jean cleared her throat and wiped at her cheeks.

"It's not your fault," said Dor. "Mr. Quillon sent Elmira though the multiverse after me. He was awful, and she was awful, but they're both gone now and…"

"It's not that," said Jean. "I made the call to leave you behind. And I want you to know, I've regretted it ever since. I'll never do that again."

Dor reached out to the other girl and Jean took her head. "Thank you."

Jean smiled, then cleared her throat, releasing Dor's hand. "The Professor tells me you're experienced with meditation, that you've a mental construct for organizing your thoughts. With your permission, I'd like to touch my mind to yours."

Dor nodded. With a breath and a thought, she was sitting in the room in her mind, book-crammed shelves lining the walls, over-stuffed chair in one corner, study table taking up the center. The door at one end that lead to the vast multiverse was a warm spark in her chest. But it all felt cramped, like the walls were too close, the books out of order, the table too big. It was because she was distracted, thinking about Jean, about Kya…

A knock came from the door in her mind, and Dor knew it was Jean. With a thought she opened the door and Jean entered. The tall girl looked around and stepped up to the shelves to examine the book titles.

"You can read these?" Jean asked.

Dor nodded. "Can't you?"

Jean shook her head. "It's like I'm in a dream. It sort of makes sense when I look at it, but as soon as my eyes go to the next word, it's all different."

Dor joined the other girl and looked at the books. Standing close to Jean made her skin tingle.

To Dor, the titles all made perfect sense: _Alice's Adventure in Wonderland_ , _The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up_ , _The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_. Though she didn't know the books, she was excited to read them just by the titles. One of them even bore one of her names, Alice.

"The Professor said you had a sort of spell book. May I see it?"

Dor ran her eyes along the shelf until she found her grimoire and withdrew it. She handed it to Jean and they both sat at the table.

"The playing cards are a sort of metaphor for the powers I've learned by observation," Dor said. "I showed Minwu the spells I learned from her and she said it felt like a compact version of what she knew."

Jean took her time with each card in turn, and Dor took the time to reexamine Ben's Petrosapien. While each other card was either a Sorcery or an Enchantment, this card was labeled a Creature. She didn't know what that meant. Would it summon a version of the crystalline golem to stand at her side? Would it transform her into a version of that creature?

Jean withdrew Jubilee's Dazzler. "When did you learn this one?"

"In the alleyway in New York City, fighting the mechanical spiders."

Jean replaced the card and turned the page. She touched Gems' Fusion. "Is this what you used when you and Jubilee… combined?"

Dor nodded.

"What was it like?"

"Strange and wonderful. It was like I was someone else, but still, part of me was in there. We were powerful together. Strong and confident. That's… that's why we disobeyed. We didn't want that jerk to think he'd gotten the better of us. We knew we could beat him."

Storm's Salvo had taken its place after Gems' Fusion.

"And this?"

"I just learned that one yesterday, when Storm flew in to save us. I haven't tried to cast it yet."

"And all you had to do to learn it was to see it?"

Dor shrugged. "I don't really know. I saw Twilight Sparkle blast timberwolves with beams of magic, watched Protego and Stupify cast over and over, I watched you fight with energy from your mind, and didn't learn any of it. I don't know if it happens when I'm focused or relaxed or if there's any discernable pattern at all."

Jean put a hand on Dor's back and rubbed gently. Dor realized her voice had gone high and plaintive. She blushed and hunched her shoulders.

"It's all right Dorothy. As I understand it, you've only just started to learn about your powers. You don't need to be an expert right away. That's what we're here for, to learn."

Dor nodded and blinked, trying not to cry.

Jean turned back a page. "If I might make a recommendation." She tapped Pince's Catalogue. "This one feels like something I might do to settle my thoughts."

"It's a spell of mental organization," Dor said, chiding herself. She should have thought of that. She took a breath. "Catalog Cogitatus," she said softly, remembering the words Madam Pince had spoken. "Catalog Cogitationes meas." The room in her mind expanded like a breath, and settled. The books that had seemed overstuffed a moment before now felt meticulous.

"Nice," said Jean. She turned the pages of Dor's grimoire until they reached the stolen artifacts. "Why don't you choose one for us to start with?"

Dor plucked Excalibur from its pocket.

"The sword of King Arthur," said Jean. "I don't suppose you're a time traveler?"

Dor shook her head. She explained about parallel earths and alternate earths and how the year where she came from was nineteen-o'eight. "But then there are worlds that aren't even Earth. And at least one of them has a legend about a sword called Excalibur, so…" Dor swallowed hard and tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. She didn't know why she was being so emotional.

Jean rubbed her back again. "There's no rush, Dorothy. Let's focus on just this card. Everything on the first two pages is a spell, an action you can take, a way to focus the energy in your body through your mind. Correct?"

Dor had never thought of it quite like that, but it sounded accurate and she nodded.

"But these cards are something else," Jean continued.

Dor nodded again.

"Explain them to me."

"Silas Quillon was a Time Master from a universe called Earth-1. He was sentenced to a mindcage that became the Infinite Library and with the Infinite Library he was able to discover and steal a variety of artifacts from across the multiverse. He showed them to me once. He kept them in display cases. When the Infinite Library collapsed, it was anchored to my use of L-Space.

"He told me there are more variations of Earth than any other plane of existence. That on some of those versions, King Arthur and his magical sword were real. He also told me he convinced the Lady of the Lake to give him this version." Dor tapped the card. "I don't know if he was telling the truth about any of that."

"In my experience," said Jean, "It is extraordinarily difficult to lie mind to mind. If this Quillon person were here, we could probe his mind for the truth. But mental energy is not exclusive to a sentient mind. Sometimes an item of great import can carry a sort of mental echo of those for whom it was especially important. I should think Excalibur, of any variation, will be one of those items.

Dor felt her chest expand and her shoulders ease, relief tingling down her spine. That there might be a way to right Mr. Quillon's wrongs felt good. "So what do we do?"

"We focus," said Jean. She tapped at the table with a knuckle. "This is a mental construct, right? I'm used to meditating by sitting on the floor. Could you, perhaps, put the table away for a while?"

"Oh, um…" With her mind focused by Pince's Catalogue, Dor realized it'd be easy to do. She put both hands on the table and imagined a sort of closet where it could go with no more effort than a thought. In the next moment it was gone. Jean and Dor sat cross-legged, facing each other, the grimoire on the floor between them, closed, and the card entitled Excalibur resting upon the front cover.

Jean held her hands out to Dor and Dor took them unselfconsciously. When their hands touched so too did their surface thoughts.

 _"_ _Focus on the card and the artifact it represents. Focus on where it's been, what it's done and who has held it. There may be many versions of Earth, of King Arthur, of Excalibur, but we must focus on this one. Thought. Emotion, Deed. All can echo through time and space. All we have to do is sit and listen."_

Dor took a long, slow, quiet breath. She held it, her chest thumping gently, a quiet rhythm for a quiet mind. She parted her lips and released the breath slowly, letting it go in time to her heartbeat. She let the rhythm fill her until it dictated the rate of her breath and pricked at her skin. With each breath in and each breath out, the rhythm slowed until between one and the next, everything went still. There was naught but her thought and Jean's and the great expanse of the cosmos like a delicate sphere not an arm's length away, and beyond was the Blind Eternities.

Between her thought and Jean's, Excalibur hummed like vibrating metal, just at the edge of hearing. And somewhere beyond the Blind Eternities, another sphere hummed in response.

Dor gasped, both pleased and surprised, and the moment ended. Dor fell into herself and blinked in the dimly lit study room at Jean, who blinked back at her.

Jean smiled. "Well done, Dorothy."

"What do you mean?" Dor shook her head, frustrated. "I lost focus. I ruined it."

"Dor, we just cast our consciousness into the multiverse, and the multiverse responded. I never expected to meet with such success so quickly. I expected it would take weeks to get anywhere near that kind of result."

That mollified Dor.

Jean stretched her arms behind her back and stood gracefully. She went to the wall panel and tapped at it to raise the lights. "Oh. It's already 4:30 in the afternoon. I've missed my training session Scott."

"Sorry," said Dor.

Jean waved a hand. "Not at all. This was endlessly more fascinating. Come on, let's get something to eat."

* * *

Dor fit in at Xavier's Institute just as well as with the Changs and the Hufflepuffs. She sat with Jubilee, Shadowcat, and Squirrel Girl at dinner then joined them in one of the common rooms afterward to play a boardgame called Monopoly with Psylocke and Nightcrawler. Dor didn't understand it, but she played along and lost gamely. Some of the junior X-Men were in another room watching a film on a futuristic device, some in yet another room played billiards, still others had gone to their dorm rooms early.

When Cyclops called curfew, the junior X-Men all went off to their dorm rooms.

That night, Dor borrowed paper and a pen to write letters to Madam Pince, Professor Sprout, Isabel, and the Hufflepuffs. After Jubilee had fallen asleep, Dor used L-Space and the warmth at her chest to planeswalk to the Hogwarts library where she placed the notes on Madam Pince's desk. The Hogwarts Library was dim and quiet. Snow fell thickly outside the windows.

The next morning, Dor meditated with Jean and though they were able to get the card of Excalibur to resonate with some far, distant plane, they made no more progress than they had before. Jean had class with the Professor that afternoon, leaving Dor free. Dor took the opportunity to visit Minwu's cottage, but the woman wasn't present and Dor didn't want to disrupt her if she was in class. She took to wandering the halls of Xavier's Institute then out onto the grounds, reveling in the warmth of summer.

Grunts and shouts of pain took her attention and she made her way to a grassy sort of courtyard tucked behind the mansion where a group of junior X-Men crowded around a pair tussling hand to hand. They were all clad in the black, close-fitting armor of Xavier's Institute, each with detailing in some other personalized color.

Dor hunched in on herself. There had been conflicts between girls at the orphanage, sometimes even fights. Dor had tried to avoid them but had more than once been on the rough end of a girl who wanted to shove her around. She was surprised none of the others intervened. She'd gotten the impression at breakfast that everyone here was pretty friendly with everyone else.

One of the students managed to pull the other off balance and flip them onto their back on the grass. The flipped student cried out and Dor realized it was Jubilee. Dor's resolve stiffened and with a sudden, crack of magic she teleported to the group, purple sparks dancing in her wake. She put herself between Jubilee and the other student, a girl with fire-red hair and bright green eyes. The detailing on her uniform was bright orange.

The girl stumbled back, eyes wide, and put her hands out at chest height. Globes of yellow-orange heat immediately burst around her hands. Dor drew her wand and felt the magic at her shoulders. She considered her options. There was no ready source of water, so it'd have to be Jubilee's Dazzler, unless she wanted to go with the fire spells.

Jubilee grabbed Dor from behind, wrapping her arms around Dor's chest and pulling her back. Dor knew immediately it was Jubilee from her touch. Her skin tingled and felt warm and Gems' Fusion flickered to the fore of her mind. A short man with a gruff expression and scruffy chin interposed himself in the next moment. After several moments, Dor remembered Jean pointing him out to her. It was Logan, the combat teacher.

"Easy, Dorothy," Jubilee said. "We were just sparring.

Dor lowered her wand.

The other girl lowered her hands and the yellow-orange heat globes faded.

"Oh!" Dor turned to face Jubilee. "This is a class? I didn't realize…" Jubilee nodded, wide-eyed. Dor blushed hard and tears sprang to her eyes. She turned to look again at the red-headed girl. "I'm so, very sorry. I thought…"

"Jones, you good?" Logan's voice was low and gravely, like a deep-throated canid. Dor backed up several step, Jubilee with her. The red-headed girl, Jones he had called her, shook her shoulders and put her hands behind her back.

"I'm good. Just startled."

Logan turned to face Dor, crossing his thick arms over his barrel chest and frowed. He wasn't very tall, but he didn't need to be. He was built like a tree trunk and his scowl made her swallow nervously. Clearly, he was unhappy with her interruption. She tried not to shrink back. Tried to remind herself this place was safe. But she couldn't help biting her lip and hunching her shoulders. She couldn't help the tears of embarrassment from streaming down her cheeks.

"It's all right, kid. I'm not gonna hurt her," he growled. "This is the new girl, right Sparkles? She's with you?"

"Yeah," said Jubilee. "She didn't know it was just sparring. She didn't mean to…"

He nodded and turned to face the gathered students. "Pair up. Practice your throws." He looked sidelong at Jubilee. "Sparkles, you're with Chipmunk."

"I'm a squirrel!" Squirrel Girl shouted, indignant.

Logan ignored her.

"That's hardly fair," said Jubilee. "She's got super strength."

"You think the bad guys are going to go easy on you because you don't have super strength?" Logan demanded, turning the full force of his gruff upon Jubilee.

Jubilee quailed. "No, sir."

"Then get to it." Then he pointed at Dor. "You're with me."

Dor felt herself go faint. She was certain she couldn't throw this man, no matter what spells she might turn against him.

"Mr. Logan, go easy on her," said Jubilee.

Logan growled at her and Jubilee scurried off but not before shooting Dor a sympathetic look.

Logan turned to face the junior X-Men, all of whom had paired up and were practicing the same grappling throw the red-headed girl had used on Jubilee. Facing them, he wasn't facing her. In fact he almost had his back to her. Dor took the opportunity to scrub the tears from her face and take a deep breath. Logan kept his arms crossed firmly, stance wide.

Other than Squirrel Girl and Jubilee, Dor saw Shadowcat paired with the blue-skinned boy, Nightcrawler; and Iceman with the red-headed girl, Jones; and the large boy with the thick accent, Colossus, was paired with the purple-haired girl, Psylock. She watched as Psylock grabbed Collosus's arm and expertly levered his weight against him, tossing him to the grass. The boy hopped up with a grin and a nod and they did it again.

"Where you from, kid?" Logan didn't look at her.

Dor started to speak, cleared her throat, and tried again. "St. Bridget's Orphanage in Wakefield, Quebec. That's in Canada."

He nodded. "I know the town."

Dor gave a small chuckle. "Perhaps you do, but I'm from a different version of Earth where there's no magic and no superpowers. Also, it's nineteen-o'-eight. My guess is my version of Wakefield probably doesn't look much like yours."

Logan grunted. "Why do they call you Door?"

"It's short for Dorothy."

"I thought it might be because you're a teleporter. Not a codename then."

Dor shook her head. She approached cautiously until she stood almost even with him, less than an arm's length away. He kept his gaze on the students practicing their throws. He was less intimidating when his fearsome glower was aimed elsewhere.

"I really didn't mean to interrupt. I don't make a habit of attacking people unprovoked," said Dor.

Logan shifted, uncrossing his arms and planting his fists on his hips. "You've got a good stance. You study Tai Chi?"

"Waterbending," said Dor "Northern style, I think. We only practiced together for about a week, but the basics have stuck with me."

Logan grunted. "Rumor had it you've been in a fair number of scraps."

"I suppose. Mostly I've had help or gotten lucky."

He nodded. "As long as you're gonna stick around, you're gonna be trained. Tell Grey to schedule you some time with me in the Danger Room."

Dor shivered. "What's that?"

"It's a place where mutants can let loose with their powers, practice without hurting anyone." He turned to look at her, arms still firmly crossed. "You lookin' to stick around? To be an X-Man?"

Dor shrugged. "It would be nice to have a team to belong to, but I have all these artifacts I need to return to their planes of origin. Jean is trying to help me figure out how to do it. Once we've understood it, I'll have to go."

Logan looked back at the other students. They stood in silence for a while, the junior X-Men grunting and shouting and cheering and groaning. After a while, Dor plucked up her courage to ask, "Mr. Logan, am I in trouble for attacking that girl?"

Logan stroked his chin, thumb rasping across the stubble. "You defended a friend. That's what X-Men do."

* * *

That evening, at dinner, Jubilee made sure they sat with Angelica Jones, Firestar. Dor apologized again, but Firestar laughed it off. "No sweat, new girl. That was pretty impressive, how you zapped right in there. I'm glad you're one of us."

After dinner, Dor begged off on loitering in the common room. Instead she went up to the dorm rooms. At the foot of the stairs, Jubilee caught up with her

"Mind if I join you?"

"Not at all," said Dor.

Once in their room, Jubilee sat on her bed. "Is something up?" she asked, tone deliberately nonchalant.

Dor shook her head. "I thought I'd visit Minwu and Li this evening. I don't want them to worry about me."

"You could have just said that," said Jubilee.

"What?" Dor looked at the other girl, surprised at the resentment in her tone.

"Instead of just wandering off, I mean."

"I'm sorry, I just… I didn't want to… Jubilee, I'm not leaving. I just want to check in with them, that's all."

Jubilee sat on her bed and nodded. "Sorry. Guess I'm just a little jealous."

"Of what?"

"Your other friends." She shrugged. "I think. I don't know. You're my first real friend. I never stayed anywhere long enough to make friends before. And now I've got Squirrel and Shadowcat and, well, everyone here, really. But still. You stuck with me when we were hunted by sentinels. You didn't have to do that."

Dor was stunned. She sat next to Jubilee and put her arm around the other girl's shoulder. Her cheeks warmed and her spine tingled. "Before I left St. Bridget's, I didn't have any friends either. Now I have friends across the multiverse. You are a dear friend, Jubilee." She kissed Jubilee's cheek.

Jubilee sniffled and giggled. "All right. Go see your friends. Tell me all about it when you get back, yeah?" She kissed Dor's cheek in return, and warmth spread through Dor's body, shivering her skin and filling her vision with golden light.


	5. Mysidia, Part 2

She took a deep breath, reveling in her existence. She remembered what had happened, fighting that mercenary, getting her butt saved by Storm, then she'd ceased to exist. But she remembered the time in between: the shower, the spanking, introductions, dreaming of the Professor, meditating with Jean, and standing up for Jubilee. It was a strange combination of memory and dream. She'd been there, but only kind of. The times when Dor and Jubilee had been together were her strongest memories.

She got to her feet and hurried to the bathroom, locking the doors, and looking in the mirror. She was tall. Well, she was taller than Dor or Jubilee. Probably about Jean's height. Her skin was a smooth, pale shade of brown. Her hair was much longer than Jubilee's pixie cut, jet black with bright auburn highlights and all held back in a single, long braid.

She wore a black t-shirt with a bright pink circle-inscribed X on the left breast, the same t-shirt Jubilee had worn; and a charcoal grey Hogwartian skirt, the same skirt Dor had worn. Curious, she hiked up her skirt to find pink panties with a purple waistband, a combination of the panties both girls had worn. In an excited hurry, she pulled off her clothes to get a better look at her new body.

She had four arms. She stretched the upper pair above her head and the lower pair out to the side, rotating them each in turn. The upper arms were set slightly behind the lower, and when she moved them she watched her skin stretch over muscle and bone, showing she had two sets of collar bones and shoulder blades.

She further had two sets of eyes, one set above the other. Her upper eyes were dark brown, almost black, the other were deep emerald green. She blinked the lower pair, then the upper, then each in turn, delighting in how easy it was. She wondered if her head was slightly bigger, or her cheek bones slightly smaller to accommodate the extra pair of eyes, but nothing about her face looked out of proportion to her.

Giggling, she reveled in examining herself: pale brown skin, sprinkling of freckles, cute little nose, long legs, tiny waist, full hips, and breasts. Neither Dor nor Jubilee had much in the way of breasts, but hers, while not as full as some, were definitely noticeable, with small, dark nipples and freckles playing at their tops.

"I wonder…" she whispered. "I was going to Mysidia. Do you want… Of course. I'd love to meet them. If it will work that is." It was odd, talking to herself. She wasn't quite Dor, wasn't quite Jubilee. She was someone different. Someone new. And yet part of her knew she was a pair.

"It's worth a shot."

She put her clothes on before exiting the bathroom and sitting in the center of the dorm room. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and focused on that mental space, the room in Dorothy Alice Wendy's mind that held every book she'd ever read and several more besides, that functioned as a library and granted her access to L-Space and thereby the multiverse. She could see it, but it did not come to her readily.

 _Should have known it wouldn't work._

 _We're not giving up yet._

She felt at the back of her mind and touched Pince's Catalogue.

"Catalog Cogitatus." Her thoughts organized. She sat up straighter. The warmth in her chest grew. She reached for the room in her mind and it came to her. It came slowly, like an old friend recognizing who she'd once been and warming to the idea of who she was now.

With a breath and a blink, she sat on the floor in her mind where the table usually stood. She got to her feet and looked around.

"This is… amazing," she whispered.

She walked around the room, examining the titles, until she came to the doorway. With a flutter in her chest, she pushed open the door to the book-lined corridors of L-Space beyond.

"I… We don't have to… I want to."

She stepped into L-Space, focusing on Minwu, her friend, her sister, and a corridor opened on her right. She turned and stumbled and fell through bookcases. She put her lower arms out to catch herself and found the back of a cushioned chair. Looking up, she saw Minwu and Li sitting at a small, round table, finishing breakfast.

Li stood warily. She could see him taking a cautious stance, but her eyes were for Minwu. Minwu's pink hair was pulled back in a simple tail, her cheeks were flushed. Her torso was naked and she held a baby, one in each arm, to nurse noisily at her breasts.

The woman who was partly Dor, partly Jubilee, gasped. "You had your babies!"

"Who are you?" Li demanded. His tone was low and calm with a hint of a threat.

"Oh. Right. You don't recognize me. I'm Dora… Ju… lee? Doralee?" The name felt good. It felt right. "I'm Doralee. I think. Yeah. Doralee. I'm a fusion of Dor and her buddy Jubilee. From the Marvelverse. Marvelverse? What's… never mind, I'll figure it out later. I, that is, Dor, she was coming to visit, 'cause you said you'd worry if she didn't. But Jubilee's not been feeling like she totally fits in with the X-Men yet. It's hard being the new kid, ya' know? And then they fused and I wondered if I'd be able to planeswalk and now, well, here I am."

Li looked at Minwu with a small shrug.

"You do kind of look like Dorothy," said Minwu.

"Yeah. You saw the fusion spell in her grimoire. Well, I'm the result." She smiled wildly and spread her arms.

Minwu nodded carefully.

"Here, look, I'll…" Doralee rested the hands of her lower arms at the small of her back, lacing the fingers just above her bottom, and the hands of her upper arms at her navel, lacing the fingers just above her pelivis. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and with a thought, Gems' Fusion appeared in her mind. The gold-bordered playing cards showed Rainbow Quartz glowing and at the ready. It felt warm and heavy in her mind, like all the playing cards did, far more than the cardboard it appeared to be.

The wording of the cards had always been strange to Dor, like she was missing the context that would make it clear. The text box of Gems' Fusion mentioned tokens and battlefields, and Minwu's Cura described preventing damage rather than fixing it. It was like there was a rule book she didn't have access to. But Princess Celestia had said magic relied on metaphor, and Minwu had said the Cura and Lifa cards were a compact version of the spells she knew.

So, though Gems' Fusion said little about how to unfuse, Doralee felt certain, under normal circumstances, she'd have been able to unfuse with a simple application of power. But the multiverse rang like a bell in her mind, and she knew, without knowing quite how, that the planeswalker spark was inextricably tied to the soul of Dorothy Alice Wendy and while her soul was tied to Jubilee's, they could planeswalk together in the form of Doralee. But so long as they were on a plane not of Jubilee's origin, they could not unfuse.

She opened her eyes.

"My apologies. I can't unfuse. I just wanted to let you know I'm all right. That Dor is all right. We're working on a way to return the artifacts. But you said you'd worry if she didn't check in, so… I-I'll just head back now."

"Wait," said Minwu. "Don't leave. It's good to see you, Dorothy. Or… I'm sorry. What did you say your name is?"

"Doralee. I suppose it's a combination of Dorothy and Jubilee's names."

"Why don't you have breakfast with us?" Said Minwu.

"There's coffee," said Li. "Do you like coffee? Dor does."

Doralee nodded. "But I probably shouldn't have any. It's just about bedtime back at the Institute." She accepted a seat at the table.

"Interesting. You must be on a different hemisphere on that world than this one. Is your world on a twenty-five hour day cycle like ours?" Minwu asked, suddenly enthusiastic.

"No," said Doralee. "It's twenty-four hours."

"Fascinating," said Minwu. She looked about to ask another question when one of the babies let loose her nipple with a sigh. Then the other did the same.

"Still in sync," said Li. He held out his hands and Minwu handed him one of the babies. She took a terrycloth napkin from the table and draped it over her shoulder while Li did the same and, almost in unison, they put the babies up to their shoulders and gently rubbed their backs.

"This is Palom," said Minwu of the baby whose back she rubbed.

"And this is Porum," said Li.

Doralee didn't know how they could tell them apart as they looked identical to her.

The babies burped, first one then the other. Li and Minwu moved into a carefully synchronized flurry of activity, wiping the babies' mouths, cleaning off each other's shoulders, moving to the bedroom, changing the babies' diapers, and settling them into a wooden bassinet where they yawned and cuddled and slept.

In the distance, a bell tolled.

"I've got class," said Li quietly. "But I could stay if you like."

Minwu shook her head. "I'll be fine."

Li flicked a glance as Doralee. "I'm not sure I'm comfortable leaving you with…"

"It's Dororhty," said Minwu.

Li shrugged and looked at Doralee apologetically. "Kind of."

Doralee blushed and put her lower pair of hands behind her back, swaying. "That's all right. I really should be getting back anyway. I only wanted to check in."

Li sighed. "I need to get going. These mages can barely do a pushup and I'm expected to teach them hand to hand combat." He kissed Minwu's cheek, gave Doralee a wink, and was out the door.

"Dorothy, would you fetch me that robe, please?"

Doralee looked to where Minwu pointed. There was a worn white robe with the repeating, red triangle pattern along the hem draped over the back of one of the chairs by the bookcases in the corner through which Doralee had planeswalked. It was simple terrycloth with a terrycloth belt. Doralee grabbed it and brought it to Minwu where she sat on the bed in the adjoining room, rocking the bassinet with one foot.

"I'm sorry," said Minwu as she took the robe and put it on, covering her naked torso. "Your name isn't Dorothy in this form."

"You know Dor, not me. But Dor is a big part of who I am, so it's fine."

"Names are important," said Minwu. "I should get it right."

Doralee smiled. In the back of her mind, she remembered Dor wishing for her own last name and felt a twinge of sympathy. As a temporary being, Doralee didn't feel any desire for one of her own.

"So, tell me what it's like," said Minwu. "If you can linger that is. What's it like fusing with another being?"

Doralee smiled and sat cross-legged on the floor. "It's amazing. I'm a representation of Dor and Jubilee's relationship. When they met, they were both running away, Dor from that horrid orphanage and Jubilee from the sentinels. Each sought a haven and in a dark, dirty alleyway, they found each other. Even though they were only together for a few hours, they became fast friends. They're stronger together, more confident, ready to take on anything."

"That's amazing. I'm happy for you. For both of you."

A high-pitched whistle interrupted their conversation. A kettle on the wood burning stove at the other end of the cottage trembled and spat steam. One of the babies whimpered.

Minwu started to stand, but Doralee was faster.

"I'll get it." She hurried through to the other room and the stove. She grabbed the kettle by the handle and looked around for a place to put it. The table was wooden and she was afraid the hot kettle would burn it. In fact, the handle was hot in her hand, quickly getting to the point of painful, and she switched it to another, realizing she probably should have picked it up with one of the towels nearby.

"There's a pad on the counter by the sink," said Minwu even as one of the babies began to wail.

"Shit," said Doralee. The kettle was burning her hand. She cast her gaze about and found a copper sink set into a wooden counter. And upon the counter was a circular marble pad set atop a cloth mat. Doralee set the kettle down and shook her burned hands, wincing. She turned her hands up and looked at them. Both upper hands were red, though the left was worse and blistering.

"That was stupid," she chided herself. She looked at the sink to run cool water over hands, but there were no taps.

"Doralee, come in here," said Minwu.

Both babies were crying now and Doralee felt awful. She went back into the bedroom, hiding her burned hands behind her back. Minwu had one of the babies in her arms and was rocking the other in the bassinet, trying to quiet them.

"I'm sorry," Doralee said.

Minwu shook her head. "Did you burn yourself?"

"Um…"

"Show me."

Doralee held out her upper hands. The left was definitely the worse burned of the two, but both hurt.

"Here, can you take him?"

Minwu held out the baby and Doralee took him in her lower hands. She held the baby to her chest as Minwu took her hands by the wrist and pulled them to her. She took a deep breath and her form was limned with green light. That light suffused Doralee and focused on her burns, soothing them.

Doralee closed her eyes. In her mind's eye, a white sphere appeared in a sparkling of light, much as it had when Ben had transformed into Diamondhead. She reached out with a thought and the sphere dropped into her mental grasp, transforming into a playing card.

* * *

 **Minwu's Heala** **W**

 **Tribal Sorcery – Cleric**

Choose one or both:

● Remove up to two -1/-1 counters from target creature you control.

● Destroy target Aura attached to a creature you control.

* * *

"Well, how about that," said Doralee.

"Does that feel better?" Minwu asked.

Doralee opened her eyes. The burns were gone. "Yes, thank you."

Minwu picked up the other baby.

Doralee rocked the baby boy in her arms. He had the chubby, scrunched face of a baby and a pale wisp of hair. He was warm and wiggly against her chest, cradled in her arms. Looking into his face, she felt a surge of warmth. This was a baby with a loving parents who would know a loving childhood, something Doralee had never experienced. But she wasn't jealous, she was happy for him, for all of them.

When the babies were settled, they put them back in the bassinet.

Minwu lead Doralee to the front room and closed the door with a quiet click. Then she began cleaning up the remains of breakfast.

"You sit," said Doralee. "Let me do that."

"You don't have to do chores for me," said Minwu.

"You just grew two whole people. Let me be a friend and help out."

Minwu laughed, then covered her mouth and looked at the bedroom door. When no infant wails sounded, they gave a pair of relieved sighs. Minwu sat and Dor set about cleaning up. Neither Dor nor Jubilee was stranger to doing dishes, and once she figured out how to work the pump at the sink, Doralee was well on her way.

"I couldn't help but notice the look on your face when I cast Heala," said Minwu. "Did you manage to add it to your collection of spells?"

Doralee grinned while scrubbing a plate. "I did."

"Have you figured out how it works?"

She thought of the sphere of magic that had become a playing card. "Maybe? Dor seems really uncertain about it, but I think it's got something to do with observation and metaphor. The playing cards are all metaphors. I think she's just needs a way to visualize grabbing onto the spell or power or whatever it is."

When she was done cleaning, Doralee put the kettle back on and brewed Minwu a cup of coffee. She declined to have any herself. Despite the morning here in Ivalice, the evening back at the Institute was catching up with her. She looked at the bookcases and yawned. "I really should go back. It was lovely to meet you, Minwu. I hoped I didn't disrupt your morning too much."

"Not at all."

They exchanged hugs. Minwu kissed her cheek, and Doralee went back to the bookcase. With a thought, they books parted and granted her access to L-Space. Once in the place between planes she was drawn by a tug at her middle, back through the narrow, book-lined corridors, to the plane of Jubilee's origin, the Marvelverse. Her vision filled with golden light, her skin buzzed and itched. She stumbled, blindly, forward until she fell to the floor of the library at Xavier's Institute and shimmered apart.


	6. Xavier's Institute, Part 3

In the mornings, Dor spent a couple hours with Jean, meditating. Every time, they were able to quiet their minds and reach through the multiverse, Excalibur's card pulsing between them, but they could not pinpoint the artifact's origin.

"Don't worry about it, Dorothy. With your spark to travel between planes, I've seen more than I ever thought I would. We just need to keep at it."

But Dor got the impression Jean was more disappointed than she let on.

In the afternoons, she had training in the Danger Room with Logan, or Wolverine as the X-Men called him. The Danger Room was a large room that created illusionary automatons for junior X-Men to train against. They reminded Dor of the mechanical spiders she and Jubilee had fought, but human shaped. The others called them robots. Dor sat with Jubilee and Shadowcat on a bench against the wall while Nightcrawler teleported about the room in puffs of black and magenta smoke, dispatching automatons with deft kicks and a wide grin. At first Dor had been nervous, but after watching Nightcrawler, she was eager to show what she could do.

When the last illusory automaton staggered, collapsed, and dissolved into light, Nightcrawler let out a celebratory whoop and did a backflip.

"All right, elf. Not bad. Take a break," Logan said. He didn't smile, but Dor got the impression 'not bad' was high praise from as grizzled a man as him. "New girl. You're up."

Dor hopped up with more excitement than nervousness.

"Show 'em what you got, girl," Jubilee enthused, smacking her bottom playfully.

Dor hurried to Logan's side.

"What can you do, kid?"

Dor ran down the mental list of her spells:

Ben's Petrosapien

Harry's Expelliarmus

Jubilee's Dazzler

Minwu's Cura

Minwu's Heala

Minwu's Lifa

Twilight's Blink

Kya's Waterbending

Pince's Catalogue

Elmira's Javelin

Elmira's Whip

Gems' Fusion

Storm's Salvo

"Some of them aren't about combat, like healing and focusing. And a couple of them, I've never cast." She described observing Diamondhead and Storm.

"Let's stick with the ones you know for now."

Dor nodded. "I can disarm an opponent, teleport, use a version of Jubilee's power, conjure fire and control water. I don't' see any water about though."

Logan tapped at a tablet and a trio of illusory automatons appeared. He took a few steps back. Dor drew her wand and settled into a waterbending stance.

"They're just going to stand there for now," Logan said. "Do your thing."

Dor cast Jubilee's Dazzler, the palying card coming readily to her mind, the power flowing easily through her, focusing in her wand hand, and blasting through the end of the wand at the center of the three automatons. It staggered back, joints sparking, and collapsed.

She reached for Elmira's Javelin next. She wasn't as comfortable with the red-bordered spell, but that's why she chose it. She wanted to get better, to get stronger, and to do so would requires she be familiar with all her tools. She thrust with her wand and launched the fiery projectile, striking a second automaton in its chest. It melted and exploded.

The coursing of fire through her body was exhilarating. She felt aflame, cheeks hot, skin tingling, , thoughts loose and at the ready. The second javelin came as easily as the first and the third automaton blew apart.

Logan grunted, but the junior X-Men on the sidelines applauded. Jubilee cheered loudly. Logan tapped at his tablet again.

"This time they're aggressive. You ready, new kid?"

Dor nodded.

The destroyed automatons disappeared in a shimmer of light and a new trio appeared. The one in the middle held a long, single-edged blade in both hands. The two on either side spread out to flank her and she let them, focusing on the one in the middle. She launched a fiery javelin at it but it dodged aside and came for her. Dor's eyes widened as the automatons closed. She reached for Kya's waterbending, hoping the arms of water would defend her, before remembering there was no water in the Danger Room.

Desperate, she reached for Twilight's Blink and felt the power fill her.

With a crack she leapt several feet behind where the automatons had started. Now behind them, she took a moment to settle her thoughts. "Catalog Cogitatus," she murmured, and felt her panic fade. A quick Expelliarmus disarmed the sword-wielding automaton as they turned to face her. The sword leapt from the automaton's hand and spun away harmlessly. She lashed her wand at the one on her right, letting Elmira's whip extend from its tip and entangle her target. With a jerk, she pulled it into its fellows and the three bumbled for a moment in a tangle of limbs. Dor took a breath, the heat of Elmira's Whip filling her nostrils, and with a pulse of power, the whip exploded, reducing the automatons to slag.

"Not bad, kid. You want a break or you wanna push it?" Logan asked.

Dor grinned, feeling more excited, more energized than ever she had.

"Absolutely."

Dor lost track of time in the whirlwind of magic, sparks, and fire. She danced smoothing from one stance to the next, even though there was no water to call upon. Instead, she launched fire and light, teleporting about the Danger Room with adroit alacrity. The automatons got faster and stronger, able to take more than a single javelin or dazzler. They came armed with swords, then staves, then firearms. They got taller and better armored. And Dor fended them off until her braids were frazzled. Sweat slicked her hair and stuck her X-Man t-shirt to her chest and back.

"All right," said Logan. "That's enough. Take a seat, kid."

Dor blinked sweat from her eyes and looked at the gruff man. He swayed and blurred. "I'cun take anotha roun'," she said. Her joints were watery, her fingers numb, but her mind was sprinting and she was certain she could take on another hose of the illusions.

"No. Sparkles, Chipmunk, come get your friend."

Jubilee and Squirrel Girl were suddenly on either side of her. Dor was certain Logan was wrong, that she could keep going and she pulled at her magic, that tingle at her shoulder blades, and let Twilight's Blink take prominence in her mind. She'd teleport out of the girls' grip and show them all just how ready she was. The magic flowed to her wand, was shaped by her mind, and the crack of teleportation was the last thing she knew before blacking out.

* * *

Dor woke in the room in her mind, sitting cross-legged across from the Professor.

"Ah, there you are, Dorothy."

Dor looked around. The room was stuffed full and close. She felt fuzzy and slow. With a thought she reached for Pince's Catalogue.

"I wouldn't do that," the Professor said, but a moment too late.

It was like a sore muscle, overused, Her shoulders tensed and she couldn't use her magic.

"Can you tell me what happened?"

Dor sighed. "I drained my mana. There's only so much magical power within a person and using all of it is dangerous. I suppose I'm lucky I only passed out. I was just so caught up in the training… I suppose Mr. Logan is disappointed with me?"

Professor Xavier chuckled. "Actually he's worried. The Wolverine may be fierce, but he takes the safety of his studnets seriously."

Dor groaned. "That may well be worse." She wiped tears from her eyes. "I'm so sorry, Professor. I should have…"

The professor held up a hand. "Have you learned from your mistake, Dorothy?"

Dor nodded.

"Then you've nothing to be sorry for." He smiled at her and Dor wanted to hug him, but held herself back. She didn't really know him and didn't want to be too forward. "It is difficult to keep thoughts to oneself mind to mind like this. I would be more than happy to receive a hug from you, Dorothy."

He stood and Dor did the same, hugging him around the middle. He put his hands around her shoulders and Dor sighed, comfortable. After a while, she drew back.

"I suppose it's time for me to wake up now."

The Professor nodded. "I'm afraid you'll have a headache. I've done what I could for it, but magic isn't my area of expertise. Also, your friends are worried for you, they'll want your assurance you're all right."

* * *

Dor awoke in her bed. Jubilee sat her side, tablet in hand.

"She's awake," said Jean Grey from further in the room. Dor tried to sit up and look around, but she was sore all over and just the thought of trying to move was too much. Within moments, a crowd of faces peered down at her: Jubilee, Shadowcat, Squirrel Girl, and Firestar. A few moments later, Jean joined them, her expression mild.

The girls peppered her with questions until Jean told them to give her some space. Dor explained about mana and what happened when she used too much. Then she apologized for worrying them while hot tears slid down her cheeks. She received assurances they weren't upset with her and were all glad she was unharmed. Finally, Jean chivvied everyone out.

"Get some sleep Dorothy," Jean said, voice cool.

Dor hoped the older girl wasn't mad at her.

"Here," said Jubilee. "Dr. McCoy gave me some pain killers. They should help you sleep."

Jubilee held Dor sit up and gave her a pair of small blue pills and a glass of water. Dor swallowed them carefully, then groaned.

"Minwu would spank my bottom if she knew how foolish I'd been."

"Really?" said Jubilee. "She seemed so sweet." She took the glass from Dor and set in on a nearby table.

Dor nodded, then winced as her headache intensified. Dor closed her eyes and after several moments, when the headache faded, she took a deep breath. "She is. She's wonderful. But she doesn't brook much nonsense and I should have known better."

Jubilee rubbed her back through the t-shirt. "For what it's worth, I thought you were awesome."

After a quiet day of recovery, Dor resumed her meditation with Jean in the morning and training with Logan in the afternoon. Meditating with Jean was nice and quiet, but yielded no more results than that first day. They would sit in the dim quiet together and after a time the cosmos of this plane, the Marvelverse as she couldn't stop thinking of it, would string to within touching distance. Excalibur would pulse between them and, somewhere beyond the Blind Eternities, another plane would pulse in return. And then, no matter how patiently they waithed, no matter how hard they thought, no matter how far they reached, nothing else happened.

"Jean, are you mad at me?" Dor asked after another failed attempt. They sat together in the quiet study room in the library.

Jean looked at her, eyebrow raised. "Of course not. What makes you think that?"

"Well, it's just, you seem disappointed."

Jean shook her head, then sighed. "We made such amazing progress that first time. I thought I was getting stronger, becoming a better telepath, but now I'm certain it's because of you. That spark I sense in you, that allows you to walk the multiverse, I can use it as a sort of telescope to see further, but that's it. I'm not angry with you, Dorothy, but I _am_ disappointed I haven't been able to help you solve your problem."

Dor looked down. "I see."

"It's not your fault, Dorothy."

But Dor felt like it was her fault. Perhaps she could focus better, or concentrate harder. When she got to the Danger Room, Jubilee was there to greet her.

"How was meditation?"

Dor shrugged. "Same as usual, but no better."

"At least it's not getting worse," said Shadowcat quietly.

Dor looked at her and smiled.

"Come on," said Squirrel Girl boisterously. "Let's go smash some robots and feel better about ourselves."

Logan gave her a passing look when the entered the Danger Room. Dor blushed, but he didn't say anything. When it was Dor's turn, he said, "You said there's a couple powers you've never tried before."

Dor nodded.

"Let's try them today. And if you begin to feel faint, tell me."

Dor nodded again. "Yes, sir."

"You said you can do what Storm does?"

Dor shrugged. "Of a sort. I don't think I can fly, and I feel like she's got a whole host of ways she can apply her power. But I've got a spell that, well, I saw her summon lightning and tornadoes, and I think I can do something like that."

Logan grunted. "Show me." He summoned a platoon of illusory automatons with a tap at his tablet. They stood still, waiting.

Dor closed her eyes and summoned her grimoire. She flipped to the second page where the gold-bordered cards were and withdrew Storm's Salvo. Storm was tall and lithe with dark skin and white hair. She pulled the card from its pocket and sparks tickled along her hand up her arm to her shoulder. A cold breeze sent her braids to swaying. She shivered, but did not feel cold. The sent of rain filled her.

She opened her eyes and drew her wand. The power clenched between her shoulder blades, building. She raised her wand and pointed it at the automatons. A moment later, a bolt of lightning leapt from her wand to her targets even as a whirlwind cone surrounded them, lifting them into the air to be struck agin and again by the lightning.

It was over in moments.

Dor looked around to find the junior X-Men hiding behind the bench, Logon hunkered down nearby.

He stood and brushed off his knees. "All right. Well. Now we know what that does." He looked at the junior X-Men who were all climbing back onto the bench. "Who wants to see her do that again?" Immediately every one of them raised their hands.

Dor cast the spell three more times, the illusory automatons of the Danger Room scattering before her power. She was ready to give it another go when Logan called a halt. "Let's give someone else a turn."

Dor took her seat next to Shadowcat and Jubilee to watch Squirrel Girl punch the automatons apart with her bare hands.

* * *

Dor found herself less excited to meditate with Jean that morning and after half an hour, Jean called it quits.

"It doesn't feel like we're focusing very well today."

"I'm sorry," said Dor. "It's my—"

"It's not your fault," said Jean. "I've got a research paper I need to focus on for the Professor. Maybe we'll take a break for a few days."

Dor bit her lip. She liked meditating with Jean, even if they hadn't met with much success and she felt bad wanting to focus on her training in the Danger Room, but she bit her lip and nodded.

That afternoon, after Firestar had blasted heavily armored automatons with waves of intense heat, after Iceman had encased them in frozen blocks, after colossus had met them hand to hand and tossed them about like toys, it was Dor's turn.

"Got anything you haven't shown me?" Logan asked.

Dor nodded. "I'm not quite sure what it will do. It's not marked like the others.

"Do I need to clear the room?" Logan asked.

Dor shook her head. "I won't be casting lightning bolts or anything."

Logan grunted and nodded, tapped at his tablet, then nodded at the trio of automatons.

Dor drew her wand, took a breath, and closed her eyes. Ben's Petrosapien floated in her mind, a white-bordered card featuring a greenish-blue crystalline golem with a spiked fin crowning its head and the green hourglass symbol upon its chest. Dor let the power tingling at her shoulder blades fill her with slow, quiet breathing until it fairly burst from her fingers, then took her wand in both hands and gave the playing card a mental tap. The energy flowed, shaped by the spell and power pushed out from her body before she was ready for it.

The feeling started deep in her chest, cold and smooth and sharp. It grew with a song like vibrating crystal, each cell of her body resonated as it shifted and changed. The crystalline body grew from the inside out, pushing at her, stretching her, pulling her in every direction at once. It was strange and uncomfortable but not quite painful, as though she'd exercised a muscle she didn't even know existed. The magic within tingled along her skin but rather than shiver, her skin sang with it. When it was done, Dor looked down at herself. She had become a petrosapien. She'd expected the spell to summon a petrosapien from elsewhere in the multiverse, after all summoning monsters to do one's bidding was common legend and folktale. Perhaps it was because she'd learned the spell by observing a shapeshifter.

Her skin was blue with a faint purplish tinge. And though her limbs and digits were blocky and seemed cumbersome, she moved easily if heavily. She stretched her arms out and up then took a couple careful steps. Her body was tall and broad, all hard planes and sharp angles. Though she didn't know if petrosapiens had a difference in sexes, she definitely felt masculine in this body. She held her hand palm up before her and curled the fingers one at a time, the joints clicking.

It took her a while to realize she was unclad. The clothes she worn, blue jeans and a t-shirt, had ripped from her body, shredded by the crystalline angles of the petrosapien form and her rapid growth. But she felt no shame in being nude as a petrosapien.

"This is unlike anything I've ever felt," she said. Her voice was deep, sonorous, with a faint high-pitched ring. She looked around and realized her sense were different. Though her vision was much the same, colors were washed out. She couldn't smell at all. But her hearing was acute, her whole body sensitive to the vibrations of movement and sound, almost like her crystalline skin was a kind of ear.

"How do I look?" she asked.

"Strong," said Squirrel Girl.

"Awesome," said Jubilee.

"Look like you're up for a fight," said Logan. "He nodded at the automatons. Ready?"

Dor turned to face them. She raised her fists and they shifted, each cell of her crystalline body sliding against each other like microscopic glass marbles, until they became a pair of long, sharp blades.

She grinned.

At Logan's direction, she fought automatons of increasing difficulty. He showed her the basic techniques of in close brawling. When a trio of metal claws punched from between the knuckles on either of his fists, Dor jumped, surprised, but she paid attention and tried to use her blades as he used his claws. She couldn't have said for how long she went at it, but when Logan called a halt she was winded and would have been sweating were she still human.

Dor reached for the spell in her mind and tapped at it. She felt the magic fill her and pull at her form, shrinking her, shifting her back to her human form. It was a moment or two before she remembered shifting into the petrosapien had shredded her clothes.

She knelt quickly so her knees covered her chest and wrapped her arms about them, squeezing het legs together to hide her nakedness as best she could. She blushed so hard she was sure her whole body was a uniform shade of red and tears sprang immediately to her eyes.

"Turn around, boys," Logan snapped, voice like a warning bark.

"Here," said Jubilee. Dor looked up, blinking away tears, and found Jubilee holding out her bright, yellow jacket. Dor took it, gratefully, and slipped it on. It was long, falling to her knees and was more than adequate to cover her nakedness.

"Thank you," Dor whispered, barely above a croak. "I can't believe I did that."

"It's all right," said Jubilee. "It was an accident. And the boys turned around pretty quick. Well, except for Nightcrawler, but Colossus bopped him one."

Dor blushed harder. Jubilee put an arm around her shoulders and steered her from the Danger Room. Squirrel Girl, Shadowcat, Firestar, and Siryn were all there with her in a solid pack of sisterhood.

"I did that once," Firestar said as they made their way to the locker room showers. "I channeled to much heat I burned the clothes right off my body. Everyone got a good look at me in the buff."

Dor sniffled, but had to admit the story made her feel a bit better.

"Me too," said Shadowcat. "I phased right through my clothes one time when I wasn't concentrating."

Squirrel Girl giggled. "I remember that one."

Jubilee patted Dor's back.

After dinner that evening Dor joined the others to watch what they called a 'chick-flick'. It was an inspiring tale about a young woman attending a prestigious law school and refusing to fall for the young man who treated her poorly. Later, Jubilee and Dor joined Squirrel Girl and Shadowcat in their dorm room to chat.

"Hey Dor, can we show everyone Doralee tomorrow? It'll be our last training session in the Danger Room for a while."

Dor tingled all over. Thinking of the tall, confident, four-armed woman excited her.

"That would be awesome," said Squirrel Girl.

"What's it like?" asked Shadowcat.

"So, totally amazing," said Jubilee. "We so much more confident. And way powerful."

"Is it, like, one of you controls the legs and…" Squirrel Girl trailed off.

Jubilee shook her head. "We're one person. It's like…" Jubilee looked at Dor.

"It's like we're our friendship has become a person and has the best parts of both of us."

"Wow," said Shadowcat quietly.

"Yeah," said Jubilee.

* * *

Later, lying in bed, sleep about to claim her, Dor had an idea. If Jean was right and she was using Dor as a sort of telescope for her telepathy, perhaps fusion would bring those two things together, make them stronger. But broaching the idea of fusion with Jean made Jubilee blush. Her friendship with Jubilee had been forged by desperation in a dark alley, by fighting together. She and Jean didn't have that. And she didn't feel like she could ask for it, especially when she'd been focusing more on her training than her meditation.

But there was something Jean could do for her that might bring them closer. Something that might make up for her inattention in meditation.

That morning, after the others went off to class, Dor went back up to the dormitory floors, still in her pale yellow, Hufflepuff nightie, and knocked on Jean Grey's study door. A few moments later, Dor felt the mental touch she'd come to know as Jean, then the door opened. Jean sat at her desk with her back to the door.

"Give me just a moment or I'll lose this thought," Jean said, tapping away at a keyboard.

Dor was familiar with typewriters, but this keyboard was attached to a screened tablet, like the one Logan carried in the Danger Room. Jubilee had called them computers and explained all the marvelous things they could do.

A few moments on, Jean sighed and turned her chair. Jean, too, hadn't changed from her nightie, a pale blue, silky slip with string straps that had bunched about her waist, allowing Dor a brief glimpse of white panties before Jean crossed her legs.

"Good morning, Dorothy. I thought we were taking a break this morning."

Dor nodded. "Ms. Grey, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I have a favor to ask."

Jean gave her a quizzical look and a faint smile. "Um, you don't have to call me that."

Dor swallowed hard but nodded. "Yes, ma'am. I just… It's kind of a big favor and I… I was wondering, that is… I was hoping you could help me out. I, um, I feel awful about what I did the other day, being careless with my powers and worrying everybody. I thought about visiting Minwu and asking for her help, but she's just had twins and I don't want to bother her."

Jean folded her hands at her waist and nodded. "All right. And what is it you want from me?"

"I was… I was hoping you'd give me a spanking."

Jean nodded, but she said, "What for?"

"For being foolish and reckless. For neglecting my own well being. For worrying my friends." Dor took a breath. "And for not focusing on us."

Jean's eyebrows raised.

"I mean our meditation. These last few days I've been focused on training with my spells. I feel like I could focus better on meditation. I feel like I've let you down."

Jean shook her head. "You haven't let me down, Dorothy."

"Well, I had an idea, but, well, it's kind of personal, and I don't want to ask for such a big favor before I make amends. Does that make sense?"

"And by make amends, you mean you want me to spank you?"

Dor nodded.

Jean clasped her hands in her lap and said, "'m not sure you've earned a spanking, but if you think you have, I'll grant your request. Are you certain?"

Dor nodded again.

"All right then."

Jean stood and pushed her wheeled chair to its place under the desk, then went to the corner of her small study and picked up the straight-backed, armless chair, setting it in the center of her little study, just as she had before. She sat up tall, expression firm, knees together, and beckoned to Dor. Dor went to her, hiking up the back of her nightie and pulling it over her head to get it out of the way. She hadn't worn a brassier to bed leaving her torso bare. She bent over Jean's lap, palms flat, tip-toes stretched, and immediately felt at ease.

Jean pulled her panties down to her knees and Dor wiggled, shivering. Her wiggling sent her panties to her ankles where they slipped over her feet, leaving her bare tip to toe. Her bare midriff on Jean's mostly bare thighs made her warm. Jean put one hand on her back and one on her bare bottom.

The first time jean had spanked Dor, over a week ago now, it had been a quick flurry of smacks that'd set her to quickly crying, and though Dor's tear began as soon as she was over Jean's lap, this spanking was different. This spanking was patient, meticulous. Jean spanked Dor low on her right cheek sharply and Dor gasped, there was a pause drawn out just long enough Dor thought it was over, then came the second in the same place on her left cheek. Both spanked spots tingled with sting. And on it went, a slow spanking with stinging slaps climbing up her bottom to just before the base of her back, then down again, building a smoldering sting that threatened to become a fire, but Jean kept it under control. The slow, steady rhythm gave Dor plenty of time to recover between spanks so, though tears flowed freely and she gasped and squirmed with each smack, she was not sobbing.

The sting in her bottom spread throughout her, joining the tingle at her shoulders. She remembered being bent over in Sister Mary Margaret's study, bare bottom taking the cruel woman's cane, and Twilight's Blink coming to mind unbidden. Now it was Gems' Fusion, the gold-bordered card warm as a spanking in her mind. And with each smack of Jean Grey's hand on Dor's bare bottom, the power at her shoulder's pulsed, the card in her mind hummed. It grew stronger and louder until it filled her mind and threatened to spill forth. She tried to hold it back, tensing her body against each spank, gritting her teeth against the magic at her shoulders, holding her breath against the spell.

Jean Grey spanked her thigh and the sting of the spank broke her hold. The magic flowed. The spell was cast.

* * *

She hung, suspended, in the vast cosmos, and with a thought, her awareness expanded until those cosmos, this bare speck of a plane compared the expanse of the Blind Eternities and boundless Multiverse, was but a thin sphere binding her thoughts. She stretched her body hands over her head, fingers and toes pointed, until the tips of her touched the bounds of that sphere.

Keeping the tips of her left fingers on that sphere, she touched the middle of her forehead with her right and it was like a third eye had opened, an eye that could perceive the energy of thought. And from the third eye, she drew the playing card, Excalibur. When it was free, that third eye blinked and teared.

The card glowed in her hands, pulsing with power, pulsing in time to her heartbeat, filling her, filling the cosmos. And, beyond the Blind Eternities, that space between planes of existence, at a distance both vast and negligible, another plane pulsed in sympathy. She reached for it, her whole body pulsing now, her skin hot, tears at her eyes. She pushed her power through the card of Excalibur and felt that power reach for Excalibur's home.

But a new presence gave her pause.

It was bright, hot, and telepathically massive. It hung in the distance, presence like a sun, and she feared it was staring at her, but after a while she realized it gazed everywhere at once. She recognized it as a cosmic entity. A presence greater than any living being. A deity perhaps. It was situated both within the Marvelverse and without. Perhaps in several versions of the Marvelverse, parallel versions, at once. She pulled back from it, back from the Blind Eternities, back into her self, back into the physical realm, her version of the real world.

When she came to in Jean Grey's study at Xavier's Institute, she shuddered with fear and swallowed hard. That great, fiery existence had terrified her, not only because of its vast power and existence, but because it had resonated with her. She shivered, and Jean pulled gently away from Dor until the one woman was two girls again.

Dor stumbled and gasped. Her mind shivering and her body throbbing. She turned to look at Jean who looked at her, tears in her eyes.

"What was that?" said Dor.

"Are you all right?" said Jean

Dor nodded.

"It was like a great, telepathic phoenix," said Dor.

Jean nodded. "Sometimes I have dreams. That there's a great firebird deep within. It's powerful, but it's uncaring. It's like there's a part of me that has no empathy. And sometimes I worry it will escape." She swallowed hard. "I'm sorry, Dorothy. I thought I could help you, but I'm afraid of that power."

Dor nodded. "It's all right. Besides, you did help me. I think I understand now how to reach through the card to its origin."

Jean smiled, but it was weak. "I think I should see the Professor."

* * *

That evening, after dinner, Dor told Jubilee, Shadowcat, and Squirrel Girl that in the morning she had to move on.

"Jean and I had a breakthrough. I think I know how to do it now. It's important, I think, to make sure these artifacts get back where they belong."

"You will come back though, right?" said Shadowcat.

"You better," said Squirrel Girl, sniffling and clearing her throat roughly.

"Of course," said Dor. "You have been dear friends."

Later, when Shadowcat and Squirrel Girl had gone to their dormroom, Dor lay on her back, staring at the ceiling, waiting for sleep to claim her.

"You meant it, right?" Jubilee said quietly.

Dor looked over to find Jubilee curled on her side, staring at the wall.

"Meant what?"

Jubilee turned over to look at Dor. "What you said, about coming back to visit. That we're your friends?"

Dor nodded.

"Good." Jubilee sniffled and took a shuddery breath. "Cause if you don't, I… I'll spank your bottom. Just like Minwu. I mean it. You're my first friend, Dorothy. And I…" She sniffled again and cried quietly.

After a few moments, Dor got up and joined Jubilee on her narrow bed. Jubilee scootched to the wall and held her blanket open so Dor could get underneath. Dor lay on her side and Jubilee cuddle up behind her gently.


	7. Blood Chain of Io, Part 1

Bryllyance of Clan Majyst, Son of Movyllance, Grandson of Dragonlord Gemmenna of Majyst Isle of the Blood Chain of Io, or Bryll as his big sisters called him, polymorphed himself into the form of an elf, making sure to conjure clothes this time. It had caused no shortage of embarrassment amongst the vassals of his grandmother's home the first few times he'd polymorphed, not realizing that just because he went unclad as a dragon, didn't mean he could in elvenoid form.

It was unusual for an amethyst dragon to polymorph, especially into elvenoid form. They didn't have a natural knack for it like the metallic dragons, but neither did they have an express distaste for it like the chromatics. As far as his sisters were concerned, he was peculiar, if not downright silly, choosing to study a spell the sole purpose of which was to transform him into a smaller, weaker form. Bryll liked it because it made it reading his teacher's spellbooks significantly easier.

Bryll was young still, considered juvenile by Clan Majyst, so his teacher of the arcane wasn't a dragon sage of the Blood Chain of Io, but an elven master named Finnaoilin, and Headmaster Finnaolin's books were all sized for an elf. While there were plenty of dragon sized tomes written in High Draconic, amethyst dragons, as a rule, were more suited to psionics than magic, so most tomes on the island were sized for elves rather than dragons.

Bryll was fascinated by magic precisely because it didn't come as naturally to him. He was happy to split his time studying psioncs and magic both. In fact his felicity with both had impressed no less than his grandmother, Dragonlord Gemmena of Majyst. Once, he'd even overheard Headmaster Finnaolin use the word 'prodigy'. He tried not to let it go to his head, but it was hard.

Bryll found the spell book he was looking for easily enough. This section of the library had been given over to his studies and was filled with both his and his master's tomes. The book he wanted was right where he'd left it: _Conjuring and Summoning for Beginners_. He flipped through the book to the thin, lavender ribbon he'd left to mark the page.

Summon Familiar was an extraordinarily fascinating spell. He'd spent the past few weeks studying it, deciding whether or not he could, or even _wanted_ to cast it. The spell was used by elvenoid mages to find and bond a creature to do their bidding, to be an extra set of eyes and ears, to run menial errands. It was much like the vassals serving draconic masters. Or better, a kindrid, a elvenoid with a magical tie to a particular dragon, able to go on missions beneath the dignity of a dragon, or that required a smaller frame or nimbler fingers.

Bonding a kindrid was reserved for adult dragons, usually of some station, it just wasn't possible for someone as young as Bryll to pull it off. But as far as he could determine, no other dragon had ever cast the Summon Familiar spell, even though it seemed to have much the same result.

Today he'd decided he'd cast the spell to see if there was an elvenoid creature within range worthy to serve as his familiar. He wasn't sure it would work, but he wasn't sure it wouldn't. With a deep breath, he focused his mind and began to cast.

• • •

L-Space was a comfortable closeness. Dor walked through the book-lined corridors with a purposeful stride. She held Excalibur's card in her right hand, the tingle at her shoulders traipsing down her arm to her fingers where she pushed it through the card, guiding her. The feeling wasn't as strong as when she'd been fused with Jean Grey, the process wasn't as easy as planeswalkting to a friend in a library, but it felt correct.

Quite suddenly, the L-Space in her mind banked to the right, then to the left, and her footsteps no longer felt as certain. She pushed harder at the card, pouring more mana through it, searching for that pulsing echo she'd felt so strongly while fused with Jean. And after several lengths further, the L-Space corridor branched before her: one curving to the left, one to the right. The one on the left was filled with giant, leather-bound tomes, books far too big for her to pull off the shelf, let alone peruse. The one on the right held books of the expected size. She turned to the right and took a step, but before she could take another, she was jerked off balance to the left corridor, pulled through it by a force she couldn't fight. A high, lilting chant filled her ears, puling at her, drawing her on.

Dor tumbled end over end through L-Space and when she landed it was on a hard, smooth stone floor–knees, shoulders, and elbows bruising as she tumbled and eventually came to a stop with a grunt, limbs splayed, clothes askew. She was glad she'd worn jeans rather than a skirt. She was growing used to the pants and they helped in not showing off her panties during suddenly rough situations.

The first thing she did was check her wand on her left hip. If it had been damaged, she wasn't sure what she'd do. Ever since Professor Sprout had bought it for her, magic had come easier and at less cost. She didn't want to lose the valuable tool. Once assured her wand was undamaged, she pushed to her knees and checked her bookbag, the laundry bag was still in its spot, so she had all her possessions. The next thing to do was figure out where she was and whether or not there was a library nearby.

"Excellent, it worked. Hello, my new familiar."

Dor blinked away a few tears and pushed to her feet. A few yards away, standing beside a stone table, leather bound book open upon it, was a boy in shades of purple. He had dark mauve hair, bright amethyst eyes, and pale periwinkle skin. He had delicate, narrow features and long, pointed ears. His clothes were fine and embroidered and like nothing Dor had ever seen before.

"Where am I?" said Dor.

"This is the library in the home of my grandmother, the Dragonlord of Clan Majyst. I summoned you here."

"You what?"

"And I must say I'm already impressed with your command of High Draconic."

Dor blinked again and shook her head. She wondered how hard she'd hit it on the stone floor. "I have no idea what you're talking about, but I need to leave." When the boy had mentioned they were in a library she'd realized the large room sported a wall of bookshelves. For all that the floor was cold stone and there wasn't a cushion to be seen, the room did have the comfortable feel of a library.

"You can't go. I just summoned you." His voice turned plaintive and he looked at her with such genuine appeal, she relented.

Dor took a deep breath. "Let's start over. My name is Dorothy. You may call me Dor. What is your name?"

"Bryllyance Majyst of Clan Majyst. You may call me Bryll. All my sisters do. At first I didn't like it, but now I'm all right with it."

"Bryll, it is a pleasure to meet you, and I realize you're excited, but I have a task I need to focus on."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that anymore. Come on. I want to show you to my sisters."

Dor felt herself bristle. She didn't like being ordered around. She wasn't interested in doing what she was told just because she was told. She liked to think she'd made some progress in standing up for herself in the last several months.

"No, Bryll. I have to go," she gestured at the books.

But the mauve-haired boy grabbed her hand and she felt a tug of magic, a compulsion, to do what he said, to go where he wanted, and before she knew it, he'd lead her from the room at an excited pace.

"They'll all be so amazed. I don't think a dragon's ever cast Summon Familiar before. Dragons can have kindred, of course, I'm sure you're well aware. But not dragons so young as me. I'll be the first. You'll be the first too. The first kindred of a young dragon. Isn't that exciting?"

Dor bit her tongue. She didn't know how to reply without offending him and that odd magical tug somewhere in her chest, made her feel she ought not offend him. Which was irritating.

"Bryllyance, where are you taking me?"

"My sisters are probably in the library drawing room. They're almost always there, debating and meditating and so on. We amethyst dragons are really interested in meditation."

"What do you mean... you're a dragon?"

"Of course," he said.

Dor shook her head. 'Dragon' must have a different meaning in this world than hers, because to her eye he definitely had elfin features.

"We're almost there," he said. He'd dragged her through narrow stone hallways lit with tall, arched windows, twisting this way and that, and Dor had no idea how to get back to the room with the books.

They came to a closed stone door. The boy put his hand on it, but it didn't move. He wrinkled his nose, then said something in a quiet voice with a quick rhythm. The lock clicked, the door swung open. Bryll pushed the door open further and pulled her through.

The room beyond was massive, far larger than Dor would have thought possible, even in the futuristic world of the X-Men. It was as though all of Xavier's Institute was but a single room. Great stone arches stretched up the walls to support a ceiling of stone and skylights. Dor was staggered by it for a moment, uncertain what she was seeing was real, before her senses adjusted.

The room paled in comparison to its occupants, a pair of dragons sitting upon their haunches, both of whom towered over Dor. Each was a four-limbed reptilian creature with a long, sinuous tail, but one of them had scales of burnished gold and the other of polished amethyst. The gold dragon was a bit larger than the amethyst, with a pair of frills running down its back to its tail and wings stretching almost as long. The amethyst dragon was polished and smooth with a crown of horns rising from it brow and thick, leathery wings folded carefully against its sides.

Neither seemed to have noticed the intrusion.

"It is highly irregular," said the amethyst dragon, her tone deep and resonant, filling both the room and Dor's mind. "You do know if one of you went to one of them, you'd be torn apart immediately."

The gold dragon made a deep sound, like a grunt of assent. "The point is not how they would treat us, but how we will treat them. Even the least amongst us must be kindly and justly treated. Perhaps especially so."

"Are these your sisters?" Dor whispered.

Bryll shook his head, eyes wide. His hand tightened on her wrist and he backed up slowly. Dor followed his lead, fear trying to throttle her, heart pounding at her chest.

"Socialization will be key," said the amethyst dragon. "If this is to work, he'll need to understand how your way of life and mine are different, but not necessarily opposed."

The gold dragon grunted again and nodded. "I appreciate your action on this matter, Gemenna. I know how you like to keep your people out of the fray."

The amethyst dragon nodded. "This could set us on the path to realizing Io's dream for us. If a young red dragon can be raised amongst gem and metallic, to forge his own path, to break from the cycle of cruelty and violence, it is worth, as you suggest, getting into the fray."

Dor's ear was suddenly wrenched so hard she was blinded by tears. She bit her tongue to keep her gasp from alerting the dragons to her presence. And when the grip on her ear pulled, she followed. Moments later, she was hurried down yet another hallway, stone and narrow and lit with glowing orbs at regular intervals along the wall. She gained enough awareness to realize she'd been grabbed by a tall, lithe, imposing man with platinum blond hair and severe countenance. The man's other hand was on one of Bryll's ears and he marched the two of them down the hall like a pair of naughty orphans.

Presently they entered an office where the man released them and closed his door with a heavy clunk.

"Bryllyance Majyst, you are the most foolish creature I have ever had the displeasure to teach. What, by Io, made you think it was a good idea to barge in upon your grandmother and Dragonlord Magnern?"

"I... I... I didn't. I thought my sisters..."

"It has been known for weeks that your grandmother was closeting herself with distinguished guests. You were not meant to know who that guest was nor what they were discussing. I take it your usual lack of attention means you have no idea what was going on in that room?"

"Um..." Bryll shrugged weakly. "I was focused on leaving quietly."

"Well that, at least, is good news. Care to explain why you decided to enter even though there was a locking spell upon the door?"

"They're always trying to lock me out," said Bryll. "They're no fun. But I wanted to impress them. I cast Summon Familiar." He gestured at Dor.

The tall, severe elf barely flicked a glance at her. "Yes. Congratulations. You've summoned a stinking, filthy human."

Dor bristled. She'd taken a shower just that morning and Squirrel Girl's strawberry-scented shampoo smelled pretty good, she thought.

"Your lack of forethought, awareness, and plain common sense is getting tiresome, Bryllyance. You are smarter than this. You must begin to behave like it."

"I'm terribly sorry, Headmaster Finnaolin. I'll do better. I promise."

"I have my doubts, child." The elf, Headmaster Finnaolin, went to a cupboard in the corner of his office, opened it, and withdrew a long, thin, switch. It wasn't as heavy as Mr. Quillon's cane or even Sister Mary Margaret's, but it made Dor's chest clench all over again.

"Oh, please, Headmaster Finnaolin..."

"You know what to do, stupid child."

Bryll sniffled and nodded. He unbuckled his belt and drew it though the loops of his fine, silver-blue trousers, letting the clothes fall to his ankles so he could step out of them, leaving him bare from the waist down. Dor was surprised to see he didn't wear any sort of undergarment. His periwinkle skin was smooth and hairless and his boyhood was short and compact. He went to the heavy wooden desk at the center of the office and bent over.

Headmaster Finnaolin nodded then, finally, turned his attention to Dor. He tapped the desk with a knuckle of the hand gripping the switch and said, slowly and loudly, "Bend. Over."

Dor blinked at him. "Excuse me? I don't think so."

For a moment, the severe-looking elf looked nonplussed, as though he hadn't expected her to speak, much less refuse.

"You speak High Elven?"

Earlier, Bryll had been surprised at her ability with High Draconic. Now this man did the same with High Elven. Both sounded like languages, but languages she hadn't heard of before. As far as she could tell, they all spoke English. Perhaps it was a feature of being a planeswalker.

"Headmaster Finnaolin, my name is Dorothy Alice Wendy. I am a planeswalker. I was on my way to return a stolen artifact when I was pulled off course, presumably by Bryll's summoning spell. I did not mean to walk in upon the dragonlords' meeting, nor am I responsible for having done so." She felt confident as she spoke, and liked the feeling.

Finnaolin's expression turned from surprised to furious. "You would dare? You would dare speak to me like an equal? You will bare yourself and bend over for proper chastisement upon your flesh as is my right as Headmaster of Bryllyance Majyst's education."

Dor had been subject to many spankings growing up, none of which she'd consented to, few of which she'd thought she'd deserved. Since her first planeswalk, she'd discovered, more than once, that she occasionally felt she was deserving of a spanking. But this was not one of those times, and she was not at all interested in submitting to an unjust spanking.

"Absolutely not."

Before she could react, Finnaolin gestured and she felt her body compressed from all angles, held by an invisible force. He gestured again and her body lifted and was whisked to the edge of the desk where her arms were stretched across the plane of wood and her body bent over it. That same force jerked at the waist of her clothes, pulling down her bluejeans and purple panties baring her in a blink.

She couldn't move. Struggling was futile. All she could do was cry with fear, frustration, and anger. She felt Finnaolin come up beside, his presence hard and cold. She heard the swish of the switch as he drew it back and when it struck the sting pulled from her a pitiful mewling. Tears of repeated sting joined tears of embarrassment as the man spanked her again and again with that biting switch. Though she'd hated Sister Mary Margaret's insistence on stoicism, Dor wished she could manage it now, to show this arrogant man she had not submitted to him, he had not broken her, and his power over her was temporary.

Unfortunately, she sobbed like a little girl, the switch stinging her bottom in a rapid march from the tops of her thighs to the small of her back and down again. She felt thoroughly chastened though she'd done nothing wrong. She sobbed into the desk as Finnaolin went to Bryllyance's side and similarly spanked him.

Bryllyance was no better at taking a spanking than she was, sobbing and squirming from the outset. Dor focused hard on her own discomfort, desperately choking back sobs, trying to get herself under control, to breathe evenly though her throat was ragged and her chest heaved.

The pressure on her released, and Dor pushed to her feet. Allowing herself no time to lie there crying, she jerked her clothes into position and turned to face the man who'd so unjustly chastised her. But Headmaster Finnaolin had no attention for her. Instead he had Bryll by the arm and was leading him unceremoniously to an oversized door against the far wall. Bryll had been given no opportunity to pull his pants up. He looked so like a chastened little boy in a shirt long enough to cover only half his bright red bottom.

Dor took that moment to make sure of her bookbag, still on her shoulder, and her wand, still at her hip. Neither had been dislodged by her rough treatment.

Finaaolin opened the door with a gesture. It pushed outward into a much larger room and he dragged Bryll through into it.

Dor drew her wand and followed. Her whole body throbbed with righteous anger and sore bottom and deep breaths. She fairly vibrated with it, skin atingle, mind sharpened. She wasn't going to attack Finnaolin, but she was definitely going to speak her mind and if he tried whatever it was he'd done before, she was ready to react.

Finnaolin pulled Bryll to the center of the large room.

Dor entered to just inside the doorway.

The room as not as big as the room where the gold and amethyst dragonlords had held conference, but it was still quite big. Two walls were filled with giant, leather-bound books, much like the ones she'd seen in L-Space, much too large for someone their size to pull off a shelf or open or read. There was a workbench along one wall with all manner of tools, knickknacks, and geegaws she had no name for. And in one corner was a pile of coins (copper, silver, gold) and shiny gems of all shades and hues. At the far end of the room was a second, over-large door.

"Shed this form at once," Headmaster Finnaolin demanded of Bryll. "You shall read _Tellah's Treatise on Transfiguration_ , and I shall quiz you on the details in the morning."

"But I've read it a dozen times," Bryll whined.

Dor winced even before Headmaster Finnaolin smacked the boy's bottom.

Bryll yelped and danced though Headmaster Finnaolin held him firmly.

"You continue to disobey?"

"No!" Bryll said quickly. "I'm sorry, I'll do it."

Headmaster Finnaolin let the boy go, backed up several steps, and crossed his arms firmly.

Bryll rubbed his bottom piteously with one hand and wiped his tears with the other. Then his form wavered and shifted and grew and Dor blinked heavily, the throbbing tingling thrill in her body filled her to overflowing. She felt faint, like she might collapse, and swallowed hard, closing her eyes again and taking a steady waterbending stance.

In the darkness behind closed eyes, the throbbing of her body manifested as a point of light. And with each painful pulse, intensified. Within moments, a playing card manifested. But the card was empty, no text, all in shades of grey. It was an empty spell, waiting to be filled.

Dor opened her eyes and the shifting form of the periwinkle-skinned boy grew and changed. His hips and shoulders broadened, his arms and legs thickened. His posture bent so he went down on all fours. Ridges sprouted from his spine and a tail grew from above his spanked bottom. Wings pushed out above his shoulders. His periwinkle skin grew thick and bumpy until he was covered in scales. His neck grew long. His jaw jutted forward, and within moments, the boy had become a dragon.

In watching it happen, Dor felt her mind expanding, like something learned. She knew she could learn this power as a spell. She could do it deliberately. All she had to do was focus the throbbing of mind, body, and soul, combined with witnessing this power, and pour it into the card. It was a metaphor, and a messy one, but she was certain it would work.

She closed her eyes. Her thoughts pulsed rhythmically.

The grey-chrome card hung in the nothingness behind her eyelids and she reached for it, focusing on how it had felt to witness the shifting from humanoid to draconic. And slowly, ever so slowly, that card filled with light: white, blue, red, all with a golden sheen, like a halo. And when it was full a gold-bordered card dropped into her metaphysical hand.

Dor's Dragonform

Cost: 2RWU

Creature – Dragon Mage

Haste, Flying, First strike

3/5

"I suppose I'll have to figure out how to send you home."

Dor blinked rapidly and gripped her wand tighter. She focused her gaze on the mean man in front of her. He frowned at her.

"No. I can find my own way, thank you."

Headmaster Finnaolin scoffed. "You were summoned here by magic, you stupid creature. So unless you are familiar with the properties of teleportation, arcane or psionic, I strongly doubt you can find your way to whatever dirty hovel you call home."

Dor gestured at the books against Bryll's wall. There was plenty there to access L-Space. "As I was trying to tell you earlier, I am a planeswalker. My method of travel—"

Headmaster Finnaolin scoffed again and raised the hand holding the switch.

Dor reacted.

He might not have been threatening her, but she wasn't about to let him get anywhere close to spanking her again. She flicked her wand and thought of Expelliarmus and in a flash of light, the switch spun from his hand and across the room. He backed up a step, startled.

"You dare use magic against me? Where did you steal that wand? Give it to me immediately."

He stepped forward and Dor felt the pressure of force he'd used to bend her to his will. She reacted again, thinking of Jubilee. Whistling sparks of pink, yellow, and blue leapt from the tip of her wand, taking the elf full in the face. He cried out and staggered back.

She realized this man would never believe a human was capable of anything. He'd insist on treating her like a stupid animal because he could think nothing more of her. Dor took the moment of his disorientation. She held her wand in both hands and closed her eyes and flipped through her grimoire. [Dor's Dragonform] had taken its place with the other gold bordered cards, just before [Gems' Fusion]. It was labeled a creature like [Ben's Petrosapien] and she hoped that meant it would behave similarly.

The symbols in the upper right, the cost, was greater than any she'd cast before, but she hadn't used much mana since leaving Xavier's Institute, and she was certain, especially with wand in hand, she had plenty of mana still to use.

The art of the card did not depict Bryllyance Majyst, the spanked little boy turned amethyst dragon. Instead it showed a purple dragon with shiny, amethyst-like scales and golden ridges running down her spine to her long, whip-like tail. Some of her amethyst scales were golden instead and her eyes were bright white. It was the first of the cards in her grimoire to depict her.

 _Purple and yellow. Perhaps those could be my heraldic colors._

She poured her magic through the card and felt herself shift and change. The magic started at her center and pushed outward, growing rapidly. Her spine shifted and bent until she fell to all fours. Her clothes ripped to shreds and she grimaced. She worried for her bookbag, her wand, and its sheath. She didn't want her few gifted possession destroyed by reckless shapeshifting

She had an idea.

She thought of [Pince's Catalogue], ordering her mind and putting herself in the room thereof. She thought of her wand, sheath, and bookbag and pulled at them, drawing them into the mind space, as though the thought summoned. Here, in her personal mental space, they would remain safe.

Her shoulders tensed and bulged and swelled. She hunched against the discomfort then wings sprouted rapidly from her back and a tail from her backside and horns along her brow ridge and down her spine until she opened her bright white eyes and knew she'd taken the form depicted on the card in her grimoire.

She was a dragon.

She felt large, powerful, quick. She felt warmth deep in her chest, where her magic resided. A quick look around the room showed her it was smaller than before, or so it seemed. She felt properly scaled to it now. Like she could easily take a book off the shelf to peruse, or poke her head into Headmaster Finnaolin's study, or take a cozy nap on the bed of coins and gems. She saw Bryllyance, a young amethyst dragon, smaller and younger than her, looking at her in shock, a wide draconic smile on his face. She looked at Headmaster Finnaolin, rubbing the sparks from his red-rimmed eyes and looking about furiously.

She did not tower as the dragonlords did, but Headmaster Finnaolin was no taller than shoulder height to her and she crouched, bending her thick, sinuous neck to face him, getting as close as she dared. He blinked blearily, tears streaming down his cheeks, before recognizing there was a second dragon in the room.

He looked about to say something, then bit his tongue.

"My guess is you overstepped, forcing yourself upon a draconic guest of this house," Dor said, her voice a growling timbre. "You are quick to pass judgment without taking the opportunity to listen. You are unreasonable, Headmaster Finnaolin. And unless you want your transgression reported immediately to the dragonlord, I suggest you walk away." She clicked her large, draconic teeth threateningly.

Headmaster Finnaolin backed up several steps, eyes wide, jaw working. Finally he swallowed hard, bowed, turned, and fled to his study. The door closed behind him with a timid click.

Dor felt immense satisfaction spread along her shoulders to her wings, which she stretched high and wide, brushing the walls and ceiling of the room before folding them back against her body and sitting up straight. Her bottom still stung from the thorough switching, but it was different in this form. Both haunches of her rear legs and the underside of the base of her tail stung. Even so, she sat and refused to wince, planting her fore-claws between her rear claws and wrapping her tail around them. She drew herself to her full draconic height and looked down at Bryll who was looking wide-eyed between her, the closed door, and back. Eventually he sat, mimicking her posture, down to the tail wrap, though he winced when his bottom hit the stone floor. He wasn't as tall as her and he didn't stretch to his full height.

"You're a dragon? I've never seen an amethyst dragon with golden bits before."

Dor shook her head. "As I've been trying to explain: I'm a human, a mage, and a planeswalker. You pulled me from L-Space. You've interrupted my quest."

Bryll shook his head in wonder. "I've never heard of a human who could turn into a dragon."

"It's magic," said Dor. "A spell."

"You must have studied _Tellah's Treatise on Transfiguration_ over and over again to have learned a spell like that. Especially as a human. I didn't think humans had the lifespan for that kind of studying."

"You and your master don't seem to have a high opinion of humans. Why did you summon me if you don't like humans?"

"Oh, I don't dislike humans," said Bryll. "I've never met a human before. If they're all like you, they must be a fascinating species."

Dor shrugged. "I couldn't say. But that's neither here nor there. I've got this quest, you see, so I need to be on my way."

"You can't leave," said Bryll.

Dor felt that tug of magic at her chest that compelled her to obey. She tried to object, instead what she said was, "As you say."

Bryll brightened, smiling. "Excellent."


	8. Blood Chain of Io, Part 2

Bryllyance was endearingly enthusiastic in an exceptionally annoying way. He wanted to show Dor everything in his room, from myriad projects scattered across his workbench, to every book on the bookshelves, to his favorite coin collection.

"This is the fifth minting of the Siliqua of the Ceseli dynasty in the human lands. They minted seventeen variations, each depicting a different wonder of the dynasty on the back. See? I've got one of each."

He was like a little kid with a new best friend, and Dor might have had more patience for it if hadn't kept ordering her about.

"Tell me what you think of..."

"Come look at this!"

"Wait there. I want to show you..."

And each time he told her what to do, even though he didn't seem malicious, Dor felt that tug of compulsion, that geas of magic, forcing her to obey. Whatever spell he had used to summon her forced her to do whatever he told her to. It was enormously frustrating, and every time she tried to get a word in, to explain, again, who she was, what she was doing, and what he had done to her, his enthusiasm rolled over her objections. Eventually, she resigned herself to patience. He couldn't talk forever and he was not malicious. As soon as she was able to explain, she felt certain he would release his accidental hold on her.

Eventually he wound down and, with a sigh, withdrew a draconic-sized tome from one of the bookshelves. "Would it be okay if I read it aloud to you?" Bryll asked as he set the book carefully on the floor and opened it. "It's so much easier to get through the tedium if I can read aloud. Please?"

Though it was phrased as a request, the plaintive tone to his plea tugged at that compulsion upon her. Dor might have tried to resist, but despite everything she was growing fond of the dragon boy. It wasn't so long ago that she'd been isolated and without friends herself. She took a deep breath through her elongated nostrils and reached for patience.

"All right then."

Bryll stretched out on the smooth, stone floor of his room. Dor felt a faint pressure. It wasn't magic, but that same force Headmaster Finnaolin had used to push her around. Bryll used it to hold up the book. Dor stretched out beside the younger dragon. She found moving in the form of a dragon was natural enough so long as she didn't think about it too much, much like being in the form of Doralee or the petrosapien.

Bryll started at the beginning of _Tellah's Treatise on Transfiguration_. According to the foreword, Tellah had been a brilliant and powerful human mage in the service of a silver dragon.

"How many kinds of dragons are there?" Dor asked.

Bryll gave her a funny look. "Are you serious?"

Dor nodded. "I keep trying to tell you, I'm not from this plane of existence. I don't know anything about your world."

Bryll's lips parted in a draconic grin and gave a raspy giggle. "My sisters are going to be so impressed with me when I show you to them." His expression turned thoughtful for a moment, then, with a gesture that tickled at the back of Dor's shoulders, he pulled a book from the bookshelf with that invisible force. It was a slim volume, bound in plain brown leather. Bryll set it atop the larger magical tome, opened it, and began to read.

 _Great Io, the Ninefold Dragon, the Eternal Wheel, the Sire of All Creation, looked upon the wild lands to see what realm his first, best children, the dragons, had quartered for themselves. His opalescent eyes widened. He had expected his children at the rightful head of creation, ruling a harmonious world. With their natural majesty and boons, nothing less would he accept. Such gifts of size and claw and wing he had given them! He had graced them with breaths of power, the might of spells, long life, and more. But there was a price to exact for the cost of these gifts, and when Great Io saw the lands below, he knew the price had not been met._

 _All dragonkind was scattered across the world, at odds with each other, immersed in Dragon War._

 _Io bled upon Ioearth, each droplet sizzling in the sea until they cooled and became an archipelago called the Blood Chain of Io and bid the dragons live there in harmony. So was born the Council of Wyrms._

"There are fifteen races of dragon: five chromatic, five metallic, and five gem. The chromatic dragons are cruel, the metallic dragons are benevolent, and we gem dragons are cool, logical, and above the fray. We largely seek to stay neutral when the metallic and chromatic dragons begin their bickering."

Dor nodded, her thick, sinuous, dragon neck weaving. She wondered what it mean then that Dragonlords Gemenna and Magnern had been discussing the presence of a chromatic. Was there really one of the vicious, evil dragons here in the amethyst's land? Could such different moral alignment truly live in harmony?

Bryll put aside the _History of Ioearth_ and returned to _Tellah's Treatise on Transfiguration_. Bryll dove into the book, reading with enthusiasm Dor couldn't help but find infectious. The book was dense and complicated and assumed the reader had a base of knowledge Dor lacked, but she reminded herself she'd read several books that had initially been over her head while studying at Hogwarts, and did her best to keep up.

Eventually, Bryll's enthusiastic reading slowed. He yawned in the middle of a description of protons and neutrons, mass and space. She wasn't sure how long it had been since leaving Xavier's Institute, how long she'd lingered in L-Space, how long Bryll had been reading to her, but she found herself yawning as well.

"You can share my horde, if you want," Bryll said.

Dor blinked at him, uncomprehending.

Bryll pushed himself to all fours with a tired heave and walked to the pile of coins and gems in the corner. At human-sized, Dor had thought the pile massive. At dragon-sized it looked comfortable enough for a pair of dragons if they were friendly. The coin and gems were smooth and cool against her thick, scaly hide. She and Bryll pressed into the pile. It reminded her of digging her toes into the beach outside Beach City.

Bryll snuggled up close to her. Dor didn't feel like they knew each other well enough for snuggling, but she didn't think he meant any harm, so she let it be. Besides, now he'd stopped the incessant talking, he was kind of adorable.

Bryll soon breathed the easy rhythm of the sleeping.

Dor let herself slip to the room in her mind. Here she was in her human form. Her book bag rested upon the table, and her wand in its sheath atop the bag, where she'd stashed them upon transforming into a dragon. She was glad that trick had worked. Hopefully, in the future, she could shapeshift without shredding any more clothes.

Though she was tired and Bryll's horde of coins seemed a safe enough place to sleep, she didn't like that she was trapped here. So she walked around the table to the narrow doorway interrupting the bookshelves. She reached for the copper knob as she would reach for L-Space, to travel between planes of existence. But before her hand could grasp it, she felt uncomfortable, shrugging and turning away from the door. That now familiar tug itched deep in her chest. Dor wanted to hate Bryllance for what he'd done to her, but couldn't find it in herself to do that either. She wondered if that was because she really thought he hadn't meant to, or if the summoning spell tying her to him prevented her from being angry with him.

Unable to escape through the room in her mind, Dor decided to stick with her original plan, to explain to Bryllyance Majyst that he'd trapped her and trust that he was a good person.

Dor sat in the large, cushy chair in the room in her mind, pulling the black and yellow Hufflepuff quilt over her, settling her mind and waiting for sleep. She tried not to think too hard about how she wished she could be elsewhere.

With friends.

She missed Kya especially, and felt bad she hadn't already visited the Changs. When she'd left, there'd been trouble and she hoped the family was all right. She had visited Minwu first because of the pregnancy. She'd visited Jubilee next to get help with the artifacts. Even so, there had been time to visit the Changs while staying with the X-Men. She just hadn't done it.

Dor had to admit she felt guilty about the trouble she and Kya had brought to the Chang's home. She felt guilty about having not already visited, and the longer she put it off, the worse she felt. She even felt guilty about leaving Kya to face Agni Kai alone, though she hadn't had much choice in the matter.

Just before she fell asleep, Dor resolved that as soon as she was free of Ioearth, she would visit the Changs.

• • •

In the morning, Bryll stuck his snout into Headmaster Finnaolin's study. When he turned back to Dor, his expression was stunned amazement.

"You must have really startled him. He's given me a free day and said nothing about the quiz. He never forgets to give a quiz once assigned."

Dor felt warm satisfaction that she might have put the arrogant man off. "Bryll, I wanted to talk to you about—"

"Hey! Let's get some breakfast. The vassals are always up and about by now. They make these wonderful treats called pastries. We'll have to transform into elvenoid form though. Or, if you want, we could go down to the crystal caves. There's a pool there where the fishing is good. I know it's a bit unusual for amethyst dragons to take humanoid form, we tend to prefer psionics to magic, but I enjoy the challenge."

"That's part of what I'm trying to tell you. I _am_ a human, remember?"

"Oh yeah. I keep forgetting." He tilted his head and gave a toothy grin. "Transform then, and let's get pastries."

Dor tried to object and couldn't, tried to refuse and couldn't. Her grimoire opened in her mind and she accessed Dor's Dragonfrom. As with Gem's Fusion and [Ben's Petrosapien], casting the spell a second time transformed her back into her human form. Her spine uncurled, her wings shrank, her tail retreated, her skin smoothed until she stood, pale and nude, a human once again.

"Um, sorry, but you have to wear clothes as an elvenoid. They get upset if you don't." Bryll stood nearby, clad in dark purple clothing with golden trim.

Dor blushed furiously. It wasn't just that she stood naked in front of a boy, but that she had transformed because he'd told her to, that she hadn't had an opportunity to prepare.

With a thought, she slipped to the room in her mind. In her bookbag was her laundry bag and she reached in to pull the first clothes that would come to hand. In haste, she pulled on purple panties with a black X on the seat, black socks, black skirt, and beige button up shirt. There were no shoes in the laundry bag and she remembered destroying them when she transformed into a dragon.

When she reemerged from her mindspace, she was clothed. She'd forgotten to grab a brassier from the laundry bag, but wasn't about to take her shirt off so she could put one on. Not in front of Bryll.

"But I guess you already know that rule, being a human. Come on, let's go."

Dor padded after the periwinkle-skinned boy.

As he prattled on about pastries, Dor wondered if she would _have_ to take her shirt off to put a brassier on. Emerging from the room in her mind fully clothed, made her wonder just how flexible that skill was. Still walking, she slipped to the room in her mind and reached into her laundry bag, selecting a modest white brassier with more care than she'd chosen the rest of her outfit.

"Dor? Keep up."

Dor shook from the room in her mind and realized she'd stopped walking to focus. She hurried to catch up with Bryll, biting her tongue on a caustic remark. She clutched the brassier in one hand. With a quick thought, between steps, she put the brassier back into the room in her mind and decided she could experiment more later. Her shoulders tingled and she wondered if this was a skill she could develop into a spell. The idea that she might develop her own spell, without seeing anyone else do it first, was exciting, despite her frustrating situation.

The kitchen was a large room of the same stone that made up all the rooms and hallways Dor had seen so far on this plane. There was a bank of stoves and ovens along one wall and a myriad of elvish staff worked between the ovens and stone counters housing sinks and cupboards. Along one wall were three tall, wide windows and accompanying balconies looking over a rocky shore and glittering seascape, giving the kitchen an aura of brine.

The kitchen staff were polite to Dor and regarded Byrll as a favored younger sibling. Bryll took a seat on a stool at one of the counters and Dor sat next to him. The elven staff proffered them a breakfast of fruit pastries: strawberry, peach, pear, and blueberry tarts. There was also hot tea and cold milk. Dor sat with Bryll and enjoyed a few of each along with a cup of cold milk. Bryll was quite while he ate, allowing Dor to wonder about the differences between the elves of Ioearth and the elvan of Ivalice. They both seemed to be a variation of elf, but the elvan of Ivalice were quite tall while the elves of Ioearth were short and slight.

The breakfast pastries cooked by the elven staff in house of the Majyst amethyst dragons were almost as good as those served at Hogwarts. Dor felt a little guilty comparing the wealth of food of House Majyst to the wealth of food of Hogwarts when she knew the orphans of St. Bridget's would receive mediocre bread and thin porridge for breakfast. Overcooked eggs if they were lucky.

Breakfast would have been pleasant if not for that hint of tugging magic that made her feel as though she were required to enjoy it.

"So," said Bryll, "what shall we do today, Dor?"

The tense knot of magic loosened in Dor's chest, as though asking her opinion had loosed the hold.

"I would like to talk for a while," said Dor. "To get a couple things straight between you and me."

But before she could go further, an amethyst dragon, larger than Bryll but smaller than Dragonlord Gemenna, alighted upon one of the balconies outside the kitchen.

"Bryllyance. I should have known you'd be here."

Bryll stood from his stool with a delighted squeal. "Sophitia! I've been meaning to see you. I want to introduce you—"

"Mother has a task for you, Bryll."

Dor watched Bryll's face fall as the older dragon, likely his sister, interrupted him. She wondered if that was why Bryll had a tendency to cut her off, to get his words in before he could be interrupted.

"All right. But I was hoping—"

"Take your true form and go to the docks of Elf Port. One of the vassals will meet you there with instructions."

Sophitia launched from the balcony in a rush of wind and scraped stone.

Bryll watched her go with a heavy sigh.

Dor stood beside him. "Do you want me to come with you?"

Bryll looked at her, eyes sorrowful, and nodded. Then he frowned. "What was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

This was her chance, but Dor hesitated even though she felt no compulsion to do so. "Let's save it for later. I want to make sure I've got your full attention when we talk."

Bryll shrugged and looked out over the sea. "You don't have to come if you don't want to," Bryll said. "Mom's tasks are always boring."

But Dor remembered the conversation between Dragonlords Gemenna and Magnern, and she got the inkling this task might have something to do with it. She wanted to help Bryll, if she could. Even though she desperately wanted to see Kya, even though she wanted to return the artifacts in her grimoire, she also wanted to help. So many people had helped her since she'd started this unexpected adventure, and she wanted to help where she could.

"I'll come with you," Dor said.

Bryll brightened a bit. He stepped out into the balcony and Dor followed.

"It'll be faster if we fly, said Bryll. Change back, and we'll go see what mother wants."

Dor felt the magical compulsion return, like an itch she couldn't quite reach. Her grimoire opened in her mind and [Dor's Dragonform] shone with gold and purple light. Quickly, before the shape change could shred her clothes, she slipped to the room in her mind and stripped them off. A moment later, the clothes popped from physical space to her mental space and she stood naked on the balcony over the ocean. Before now, she had always used the room in her mind while meditating, preparing to sleep, or otherwise relaxed. Trying to use it while engaged physically was proving difficult and embarrassing.

That grey-chrome card flickered through her mind, and she tried to fill it, but it slipped away from her. Then her body bent and shifted, grew and stretched, until she stretched her wings high above.

"Follow me," said Bryllyance, exuberance returning to his voice. The dragon crouched, then leapt, propelling himself with his wings. Dor watched him pump his wings laboriously to push into the air.

Dor tried not to think too hard about the mechanics of flying. Instead, she crouched, spread her wings, and leapt.

Dor launched into the air, wings tight against her body. She felt weightless and free, her scaly hide buzzing, her brain tingling, exulting in the freedom of it. In moments, she'd surpassed Bryll. When she felt the inertia of her initial thrust wearing off, she snapped open her wings to catch the air and immediately felt its movement, the variations as it eddied. She took in a lungful of the seaside brine and tilted just a bit to let her wings carry her out over the ocean. After a bit, Bryll caught up with her. His flying had smoothed, but wasn't as effortless as hers.

"You're so fast," said Bryll. "Are you sure you're not a dragon? Originally, I mean. Because you said you're a human, and, nothing against humans of course, but I just can't imagine a human being able to fly like that. Have you had a lot of practice?"

All manner of answers shuffled through Dor's mind like a pack of playing cards. Instead, she folded her wings against her body and dove for the ocean. She could see a thick school of fish gathered just below the surface of the rippling water and opened her draconic jaws wide. The fish scattered when she broke the surface but she caught a few in her mouth and gulped them down with a good portion of saltwater. In her human form, she would have gagged, but raw fish and seawater in this form was like the thickest of casseroles at Hogwarts.

Dor's dive slowed as she descended, the light off the surface bright and sparkling, the deep quiet of the ocean calming. She spread her wings and angled them to push her back to the surface. At the same time, the grimoire in her mind opened.

There was a difference, she noted, in looking into the room in her mind and stepping into it. Looking in, to shuffle through her grimoire, could be done with a momentary glance. Stepping within to remove or put on her clothes, took much more doing. Moving physical objects between the physical world and her mental room required effort.

Again, the empty, grey-chrome playing card flickered to mind. As with [Dor's Dragonform], she thought she could fill it, create a spell, a spell that would make shifting between the physical in the mental easier.

The empty card flickered away and she turned to [Kya's Waterbending]. Though she couldn't take the same waterbending stance Kya had taught her while in dragonform, touching the card allowed her to adapt it to this six-limbed shape. She spread her wings and legs, bending the salty water around her, then thrust upward, letting the water push her along.

Dor burst from the ocean surface with a gush of water, back into the sky, to join Bryll, who looked at her agog.

Dor shook herself midflight, scattering seawater. "This is so amazing!"

"You've _never_ flown before?" Bryll asked.

Dor looked at Bryll. "Nope."

"So, you just know how?"

Dor considered. The card for [Dor's Dragonform] bore the words: Haste, Flying, and First strike. She was reminded again that though she could read the cards, could intuit what they meant, that there were some phrases that lacked context, like there was a comprehensive rule book for the Multiverse she just didn't have access to.

"I think it's part of taking this form. Certain aspects are just... intuitive."

"Wow. You must be a brilliant student of magic. Are you sure you should be my familiar?"

"I never said—"

"Oh, look, there's Elf Port. Come on, Dor!"

Dor ground her teeth at being interrupted again. She followed Bryll as he banked along the coast to a city in the distance. On their approach, Dor could clearly see that the main thoroughfares were wide enough for a handful of dragons to walk along abreast, but all the sidestreets were sized for elvanoids.

Dor assumed they'd land outside of town and walk to the docks. Instead, Bryll, swept out past the port city and approached the docks from the ocean. Several ships bobbed gently in the water, against the jutting docks, sails furled. The dock was crowed with folk going about their business.

"Bryll, we're not landing at the docks, are we?" It seemed too crowded, too disruptive.

"Yup!"

Bryll dove for the flagstoned space between the docks and the wharf. People looked up as his shadow loomed, and they scattered, making way for the pair of dragons. Bryll's landing was awkward, kicking up wind and scattering debris. Dor waited for him to settle before gliding in and putting her feet to the stone as gently as she could, trying not to disturb folk any more than necessary.

Once landed, Dor looked around, embarrassed. She'd tried to train herself out of feeling like she had to flinch away from every confrontation, but this felt less like she was being confident and more like she was intruding. These folks shouldn't have to scramble just because a pair of dragons decided to drop in. No one objected, but who would tell a dragon they were being rude?

"Ah, there she is." Bryll motioned with amuzzle at a woman with long silver hair and amethyst bright livery. She nodded at them, expression neutral. Bryll ambled across the wharf toward the elf, and Dor followed.

"Master Bryllyance." The elf bowed at Bryll. "I didn't realize you had a guest."

"This is Dorothy. I summoned her here. But you can call her Dor. She's extraordinarily good at flying, did you see?"

The elf woman nodded. "Of course, Master Bryll. Lady Movyllance has asked me to introduce you to a foster. He'll be taking lessons with you."

"Oh? Fascinating. Clan Majyst doesn't take on many fosters. From what clan?"

The elf woman gestured. "If you come with me, I'll introduce you. You'll have to take your elvanoid forms though. Your mother wishes us to be circumspect."

"Right," said Bryll in a conspiratorial whisper that carried. He shifted from dragon to elven form.

Dor didn't understand how shapeshifting on the wharf was in any way circumspect, but she let her grimoire flip open in her mind and prepared to shift shape again. She'd expended a lot of mana already this morning and though she didn't feel near exhaustion, she was glad for all the practice casting spells she'd gotten in the Danger Room.

The tingle of the spell itched at her shoulderblades. She held on to it, not letting the power flow through the card and change her shape. Not yet.

Instead, she focused on the empty spell, the grey-chrome card. It flickered into being, resting atop the open grimoire. Then she stepped into her mindspace, nude. The grimoire was open upon the study room table and the empty spell sat atop it. She stepped up to the table and picked up the card.

It was light in her hand, like the thinnest of glass, only waiting to be filled.

Dor got dressed in the mindspace and let herself transform in physical space. Her wings shrank into her shoulders, her form lifted and straightened, her hide softened to skin. She slipped from the room in her mind as her humanform took hold and a moment later stood, fully clothed, wand at her hip. She felt warm accomplishment at not being suddenly naked on a city street in front of strangers.

She wanted to cheer out loud.

The elf in purple livery lead them down the main thoroughfare to a narrow side street, listening to Bryll's prattle about what a great flyer Dor was. Dor followed along, but her attention was for the empty spell. It was eager to be filled, and she poured the feeling of accomplishment, that desire to cheer, into the blank card. In her mind's eye the grey-chrome playing card shifted to white, the blank textboxes clacked with print, the art box become a window upon the room in her mind.

 **Dor's Mindpocket**

 **Cost: W**

 **Sorcery – Instant**

Exile target permanent you both own and control. You may return that permanent to the battlefield any time you could play an instant.

The art depicted her study room, the bookshelves full but tidy, the table precisely in the center, her clothes folded and stacked, her wand atop them. A thrill of accomplishment danced up and down her spine. Each other spell she had learned came from observing someone else. But this she had created on her own.

The white-bordered playing card shone brilliant white in her mind, then slipped into its place in her grimoire between [Ben's Petrosapien] and [Harry's Expelliarmus].


	9. Blood Chain of Io, Part 3

The inn was low-ceilinged and dim, though it smelled of spices and was well swept. Dor had half-expected a seedy, rundown place for conducting clandestine business, but perhaps that would have been too obvious. The elf spoke with the innkeeper, an elven man in a thick apron. Then she led Bryll and Dor into a private dining room in the back.

"Master Bryllyance, Ms. Dorothy, please wait here. I've ordered you some breakfast pastries." She gave Bryll a small smile and Bryll blushed.

Despite having just eaten in the kitchen of Clan Majyst, and the mouthful of fish and seawater, Dor found herself hungry. She wondered if it had anything to do with magic use and shapeshifting.

As soon as the woman left, a young elven boy brought in trays of pastries, setting them on the table. Bryll perused the pastries. The elven boy bowed and turned to leave.

"Thank you," Dor said.

The elven boy stopped and looked at her, perplexed, then nodded and hurried away.

"Look at all this, Dor."

Dor turned to look, not even bothering to fight the magical compulsion in her chest.

Bryll reached for one, then hesitated. "You spoke to that elven boy." He didn't look at her, staring instead at the pastries.

"I did."

"Why?"

"He brought us food. A 'thank you' is polite."

"He was only doing his duty."

"A 'thank you' is still polite."

Bryll looked up at her, eyebrows quirked. "But he works on the island of Majyst. My grandmother is the Dragonlord Gemenna Majyst. Essentially, everyone who lives here and isn't a dragon is a servant of my clan. Does one thank servants where you come from?"

Dor shrugged. "I haven't the faintest idea. Probably not. But even if others don't, it's still polite." Dor was beginning to get the impression that Bryll was a bit of a spoiled brat. She wondered if all dragons were that way.

Bryll took a pastry and ate it, expression thoughtful.

Dor took one herself. Like the pastries in the kitchen of Clan Majyst, it was sweet and flaky and warm and wonderful. The strawberry filling tasted of summer.

After two, Dor was sated. Bryll ate a third, and then a fourth, and as he was reaching for a fifth, Dor said, "Bryll. Perhaps we should leave some for our guest?"

He blinked at her, pursing his lips in thought. Then put his hands in his lap with a faint pout.

They sat in contemplative quite for a while until interrupted by a knock at the door. The elven woman, whose name Dor still did not know, opened the door and made room for another to enter.

The boy who entered was taller than Bryll but shorter than Dor. His shoulders were broadening, hinting the physique he would have when grown. His elven features were fine and pointed, though his ears were overlong and his jaw just square enough to be handsome. He had arched black eyebrows and untamed mane of jet black hair. His eyes glittered like rubies and his skin was ruddy.

Dor didn't know what the natural color variation of elven skin was, but she suspected this boy, like Bryll, was a polymorphed dragon. A red dragon. She glanced at Bryll to find him staring wide-eyed at the other boy, cheeks a deep violet blush, lips slightly apart, chest heaving.

The boy with the ruddy skin stepped into the room, hands clasped firmly behind his back. He was clad in a black doublet with gold markings and a pair of black leggings. He gave them a look over, then nodded at Bryll, clearly dismissing Dor.

The elven woman came in and closed the door. "Master Bryllyance Majyst, meet Master Ignatius Krull of clan Balagos.

"Clan Balagos? He's a chromatic? A red?"

"Master Ignatius will be fostering with clan Majyst. He'll be sharing in your studies with Headmaster Finnaolin."

"But that's unprecedented," said Bryll. "No dragon ever fosters with a different subspecies."

The other boy, Ignatius, stiffened. "If I'm not welcome here, I'll find somewhere else to go. His voice was smooth with a base crackle, like a careful fire waiting to burst into an inferno.

"No, no," said Bryll. "I didn't say that. I just meant..." He looked at Dor, expression pleading for help.

Dor cleared her throat. She'd never been especially good at pleading her case or convincing others. If nothing else, she'd not had the confidence for it. But after several months now of traveling the Multiverse, she did not immediately recoil at the prospect of speaking up. Then she had an idea.

"Headmaster Finnaolin has given you the day off, Bryll. Perhaps you'd like to show us around town?"

"Oh. Um, yeah. That's a good idea. There's a patisserie a few streets over that makes the most heavenly pastries."

Ignatius made a face somewhere between disgust and confusion, but Bryll didn't notice.

"I'll leave the three of you to it then," the elven woman said with a bow.

Bryll led them from the small backstreet inn to the main thoroughfare. Dor looked around curiously at the meticulously refined architecture of the elven town. The buildings were constructed of stone on the ground floors and wood on the upper, the materials joined so cleverly as to seem to flow from one to the other: at once artistic and, to Dor's eyes, a bit boring. It felt more refined than Diagon Alley, but more artistic than Wakefield, the town near St. Bridget's Orphanage.

Bryll took them to the wide street running through the center of town. Here the buildings were taller than necessary for an elf and had large, open air doors and windows for dragons to stick their heads and shoulders through. There were no dragons present at the moment and the overly wide street seemed sparsely populated for it. Bryll took them to a building of white stone and dark stained wood with intricate circular windows. Though the buildings all had the same basic construction and colors, this building distinguished itself with a brightly colored sign depicting a variety of fruit and intricate lettering.

The letters were unlike anything Dor had ever seen, but she found she could read it: The Cheerful Patisserie.

Despite the large opening into the building, Bryll entered through the smaller elvanoid-sized door which jingled when opened. Dor took hold of the door and held it open for Ignatius, who'd followed the two of them at a bit of a distance, as though not certain he wanted to be associated with them. He had a quizzical expression when Dor looked at him, but it turned haughty when he saw Dor looking.

Dor would have liked to roll her eyes at him, an expression she'd seen Jubilee perform to perfection innumerable times, but by the time she thought of it, he was through the door.

Bryll was speaking to an elven woman at the counter. She had sun-darkened skin, yellow hair, and the most rotund figure she'd seen on an elf, either here or Ivalice, which is to say she was slightly plump by human standards. Their conversation was animated, Bryll gesturing at Ignatius who sat at a small table by the far wall in the corner.

"He's a red… a guest. Of my… mother's."

The elven woman gave a nod and Dor was certain any subterfuge about Ignatius' true nature had to be a farce. Bryll's eyes lit upon Dor and he grinned. "Dorothy! Come here. I want you to meet the Cheerful Patisserie."

The magic in Dor's chest tugged and she did as she was told.

She swallowed her frustration and held a hand out to the woman. "Dorothy Alice Wendy. You can call me Dor if you like."

The woman smiled.

"How polite. I am Siobhan Yarasphon. You can call me Phon."

"She made us all kinds of pastries and such to try." Bryll said.

"Why don't you join your friends," said Phon. "I'll bring out your pastries in a moment."

Bryll eagerly went to sit with Ignatius, but Phon put a hand on Dor's arm. The woman still smiled, but there was a hint of concern to her eyes.

"There's a geas upon you. Did you know?"

The magic at Dor's chest tightened. "A geas?"

"A kind of magical compulsion," Phon clarified. "Dragons are immune to compulsion as far as I know."

Dor sighed in relief. "I'm a human who can shift into a dragon," she said. "Bryll—"

Phon held up a hand. "As citizens on Dragonlord Gemenna's isle, we do not speak ill of her family. That said, if a member of her family has put a compulsion upon a sapient being without permission, that would be grievous indeed."

Dor nodded. "I don't think he did it on purpose. He summoned me from L-Space. I'm sure if I can explain, he'll release it. It's just hard to get a word in."

Phon looked past Dor at Bryll with a fond smile. "He's not a bad boy, but he's a bit… absentmindedly naughty."

Dor giggled.

"If he doesn't release you, get him to bring you back here and I'll get you in contact with someone who can help. In the meantime, my pastries really are quite good. Go have a seat. It looks like those two could use a mediator."

Ignatius slouched in his chair. Bryll has his arms firmly crossed. They sat across the table from each other, each with an expression of irritation.

Dor approached, reminding herself that, despite her frustration with him, she wanted to help Bryll. She sat in the remaining chair, between them.

"Is there a problem?" Dor asked.

"Ignatius Krull of Clan Balagos seems to think eating delicious pastries is a waste of time." Bryll huffed.

Ignatius huffed back, a hint of smoke curling from his nostrils. "I am here to learn about the amethyst dragons, not… snacks."

Dor put her hands palm down on the table. Both boys had an entitled inflection to their tone and it grated at Dor's ears.

"Is there something else you'd like to do, Ignatius?"

The boy blinked his ruby eyes at her, then his cheeks darkened. It was interesting to see a red-skinned being blush.

He sighed. "Whatever."

"Well, while you think on it, why don't we enjoy Phon's pastries?"

The elven woman approached then, bearing a tray of tarts, rolls, and dodgers, all filled or topped with fruit, jam, or jelly. Several small pots of yet more jams spotted the tray. Dor was strongly reminded of the feasts at Hogwarts. Though her morning had basically been filled with pastries, Dor's stomach rumbled. She wondered if it had something to do with shapechanging, or maybe just being a growing thirteen-year-old girl. She selected a tart with orange-colored jam that smelled of peaches. Bryll selected one with dark purple slices of fruit. Ignatius gingerly took a plain-looking roll and a small white pot filled with red jam.

The pastries were so good, Dor didn't think about how frustrating it was not to be able to leave for a while. She had one peach, one plum, one raspberry, and one with a greenish-yellow jam she didn't recognize but that was mildly tart and almost savory.

Bryll was an enthusiastic eater, expressing delight at each tasty pastry. Dor thought he overdid it, but agreed with the sentiment. But when she looked at Ignatius, his nose was wrinkled in disgust. Even so, the pot of jam he'd selected was wiped clean, there were no plain pastries remaining on his side of the tray, and Dor was certain she saw a bit of jam at the corner of his mouth.

"You see?" Bryll said. "That's why this is one of my favorite places." He looked at Ignatius.

The red-skinned boy shrugged. "Whatever."

Bryll blinked at him. "Whatever?"

Ignatius rubbed at his chin and surreptitiously licked the jam from the corner of his mouth. "I prefer… meat."

Bryll sputtered.

Dor pursed her lips. She was beginning to suspect the red dragon wouldn't like anything Bryll chose, that he was being surly to be surly. She cleared her throat.

"Have you thought of something you'd like to do instead, Ignatius?"

She watched Ignatius carefully and saw a moment of indecision cross his face before he covered it with irritation.

"No. I'll do whatever."

Dor looked at Bryll who still looked at Ignatius, expression a mix of stunned and frustrated.

"What about you, Bryll. Anything else you'd like to show Ignatius?"

Bryll settled in his seat and shrugged. "Well, I was thinking it would be fun to go to the Crystal Shoppe. He's supposed to be learning about amethyst dragons and crystals can help with psionic focus. But if he doesn't even like pastries…"

"That's fine," Ignatius said quickly.

"Really?" Bryll hopped up, full of hopeful excitement. "Well, if you want to learn about amethyst dragons, the Crystal Shoppe is a good place to start. Gemstones are a psionic focus and no dragon subspecies is more attuned to psionic power than amethyst dragons. There are amethysts of course, but also rubies and emeralds and…"

Bryll got up from the table and led them from the patisserie still chattering on about gems, crystals, cuts, and so on. Dor and Ignatius followed, but Dor hung back a bit to talk with the red-skinned boy as they walked down the main thoroughfare.

"I know it can be difficult," Dor said.

Ignatius flickered a glance at her. He snorted. "I don't know what you mean."

"I left home too, not all that long ago. It was an awful place. I was belittled and threatened and beaten. But it was still scary to leave. It was even scarier to make friends of people I'd just met."

Ignatius didn't respond.

Dor stayed patient.

Bryll continued to chatter excitedly.

The Crystal Shoppe was down a side street, but still in one of the overly wide streets. Elven folk came and went through the dragon-sized opening, but Bryll opened the elf-size door to enter.

"Come on, you two," Bryll said.

Ignatius sighed. Dor grit her teeth. Both joined Bryll.

The Crystal Shoppe was filled with shelves and tables and counters, each displaying what Dor had to assume was a wealth of treasure in the cut and polished stones. There were all shapes and sizes on display, each with a careful label nearby to explain everything from gem to cut to luster to hardness and a variety of other information that was beyond Dor. She noted that the writing was all in that unfamiliar, flowing script, but that she could still read it.

Dor followed Bryll from stone to stone, excitedly explaining what was special about each one. Some could be used to enhance psychic powers. Some, Dor gathered, were just pretty. After a bit, she realized Ignatius wasn't with them. A quick look found him on the far end of the shop, examining a shelf of rubies.

"Let's go see what he's found," Bryll said, taking Dor's hand and leading her across the shop to the other boy.

Ignatius looked up as they approached and quickly put on his mask of indifference.

"Find something interesting?" Bryll asked.

Ignatius shrugged. "I'm not a gem dragon. I don't meditate, so I have no use for a psychic focus. This is… marginally better than sweet snacks."

Bryll stiffened and Dor could feel the skin of his hand, still in hers, roughen to scales. "But, you said you were fine with… that you wanted to learn about…"

Ignatius gave a practiced sneer. "My old horde had much better gemstones than this paltry offering."

"Yeah? Well where is it then?" Bryll demanded. "Or maybe you'd like to go back to it instead of hanging around here."

Ignatius took a step back as though struck.

"Easy, Bryllyance," said Dor, squeezing his hand gently. She felt the rough scales on his palm smooth to elven skin again. She gave Ignatius a direct look. "You came here to learn, right?"

Ignatius lifted his chin and nodded.

"And you've been assigned to take lessons alongside Bryll."

"I don't see how that—"

Dor held up a hand and the red-dragon boy stopped. "You are not required to enjoy the same things Bryllyance does. However, you've been asked, more than once, if there's anything in particular you'd like to do today and have only shrugged. If you really don't have an opinion, that's fine. If you're really uninterested, that also is fine. But, if you plan to foster with Clan Majyst, your attitude could use adjusting."

Ignatius squirmed.

Dor looked at Bryll. "Anything else you like to do here in Elf Port?"

Bryll blushed and shrugged and looked at the floor. "I think the library is pretty great. It's not as extensive as my grandmother's, but it's designed for elves, so there's a bunch of books on elven magic. It's where I first read about Summon Familiar."

"Really?" said Ignatius. Interest lit his expression for a moment before he got it under control. "I mean, I like books, and I've always wanted to visit a library."

"You've never been to a library?" said Bryll.

Ignatius blushed. "Red dragons are known for hoarding, not sharing."

"Come on then." Bryll held out his hand to the other boy.

Ignatius blinked at him, nonplussed, then took it. The three of them walked down the street hand in hand, while Bryll talked about the fascinating differences between elven and draconic magic.

Ignatius looked over Bryll's head at Dor. "Thank you," He whispered under Bryll's enthusiasm.

• • •

Dor sat upon an armless chair with a thin, but comfortable cushion, pretending to read _Hogwarts, a History_ while actually keeping an eye on Bryll and Ignatius. The Library at Purple Coast, as the sign above the door had proclaimed, was divided into a labyrinth of nooks and crannies. Bryll and Ignatius sat upon a bench, a spellbook open between their laps. They murmured to each other quietly. For whatever reason, the scolding seemed to have done the trick: Ignatius had dropped his haughty mask.

Dor turned her attention to her book without really looking at it.

Based on what she'd overheard from the Dragonlords, Ignatius was a refugee from the typically cruel red dragons. She supposed that was why he was so guarded. And it might be that the budding friendship between these boys could help dragonkind at large. But Dor found she was happier that Bryll had found a friend who could stick around, that Ignatius had opened up a bit.

Now she could focus on getting on with her quest. She just had to figure out how to bring it up with Bryll. But every time she'd resolved to stand from her chair and approach him, the magic at her chest clenched and she couldn't do it. With a huff, she tried a different track.

Dor peered into the room in her mind, and her grimoire flipped open. With a thought she cast [Dor's Mindpocket], putting _Hogwarts, a History_ away and withdrawing her grimoire. She glanced through the spells, hoping one of them might be the key. She flipped through them quickly, then again more slowly, then she read each carefully. She had just reached Minwu's suite of restorative spells when the sound of a scuffle caught her attention.

A glance up showed her the boys were shoving at each other. For a moment she thought they were playing around, but then Bryll shoved Ignatius off the bench and onto the floor. Ignatius leapt to his feet and tackled Bryll off the bench and into a bookshelf. The shelf teetered and books fell. The boys crashed to the floor amidst page-fluttering thumps.

Dor stood as they continued to wrestle about, grunting and snarling.

"Knock it off!" she shouted, but the boys ignored her.

Ignatius managed to get on top, pinning Bryll by straddling his chest. He raised a first and Dor moved to intervene. She stepped up behind Ignatius grabbed him at the elbow of his upraised arm, and hauled him bodily off Bryll.

Ignatius was caught off guard and stumbled to his feet. He wrenched his arm from Dor's grip, breath smoking. Bryll, too scrambled to his feet, breathing hard, face flushed.

"What are you two doing?" Dor demanded.

"He started it," Bryll said, voice pouting.

"He called me stupid," Ignatius growled.

"I wasn't talking about _you_ ," Bryll said as though it should have been obvious.

"You said chromatics act like beasts."

" _Most_ chromatics," Bryll shouted. "Isn't that's why you left?"

"You don't know anything about me you stupid, petulant, selfish child!"

Bryll sprang at Ignatius, tears leaping from his eyes, form shifting.

The magic at Dor's chest flared and she intercepted him, reaching for her grimoire. She shifted into the form of a petrosapien with a sound like sliding glass. Her clothes shredded, but she didn't have time to care. She caught the purple dragon-boy by the arms before he could shift fully and gave him a shove to put him back on his heels. He'd shifted just enough that his skin was scaly, a pair of horns protruded from his forehead, and a long sinuous tail sprouted from above his backside. He was almost fearsome in this dragonoid form, but his lip quivered and tears slid down his scaly cheeks.

He glared at her, and sniffled. He was about to say something when Ignatius snorted in derision. Bryll yowled like a furious cat and tried to lunge past Dor.

Dor's chest flared again.

She reacted by grappling Bryll, her petrosapien form stronger than his dragonoid form. She swung him about as she sat on the bench and found it surprisingly easy to pull the boy over her lap. Something about the geas magic knotted at her chest made it not only easy, but proper, to put the boy in position to smack his backside. Bryll gasped and squirmed, his form shrinking and shifting until he was a purple-skinned elven boy again, bare from tip to toe.

"Dorothy, please, I'm sorry," he wailed pitifully.

But the geas propelled her. With a thought, she shifted back to her human form and spanked his bare bottom with a crack that filled their little nook. She heard Ignatius gasp in shock. Bryll whimpered. She spanked his little bottom again and watched it bounce, watched as a deeper shade of purple splotched the skin.

She raised her hand again, and that's when she realized she, too, was nude. Shifting to petrosapien form without casting [Dor's Mindpocket] had shredded her clothes. But she also realized she wasn't terribly embarrassed. Instead, she felt focused.

She spanked Bryll again and again, keeping one hand on his smooth back to keep them both balanced on the bench, the other moving in a steady rhythm, spanking the little dragon boy. He squirmed and yelped and soon his little elven toes drummed on the wooden floor of the library and he cried, heartbroken. Dor felt his sadness—sadness at his own selfishness, his own failure. The sadness thumped at Dor's chest and brought tears to her eyes. She stopped spanking the boy and for several deep breaths, no one moved.

Eventually, Bryll pushed himself up to sit on the bench and hesitantly rest his head on Dor's shoulder. She put a comforting arm around his shoulders and he relaxed into her. Dor knew what it was like to get spanked without being comforted afterward and she wasn't interested in doing that to Bryll.

"In sorry, Dorothy. That was stupid of me. Mother gave me a task and I let my silly pride get in the way. I'm sorry you had to spank me."

Dor rested her cheek on his head. His hair was soft and smooth. She found she was fond of this boy despite the geas. "I'm sorry too. I just sort of… did it. I shouldn't presume…"

Bryll sniffled and cleared his throat. "You were right to. I was extraordinarily stupid just now. If Headmaster Finnaolin had seen me behave like this…"

"That man is mean," Dorothy said firmly. "And has no standing to give out spankings for being prideful. He's got more than enough pride for ten dragons."

Bryll chuckled.

Ignatius cleared his throat delicately and they both turned their heads to look at him.

"Excuse me," He said, tone delicately polite. "What was that?"

Bryll chuckled through his tears. "You don't have spankings where you come from?"

Ignatius shook his head solemnly. "We're have beatings. At best. And this, what you're doing now…"

"Cuddling," said Dor.

"This part doesn't usually happen," Bryll confessed, "Usually after Matter Finnaolin spanks me, he gives me an assignment to study. But…" he sat up straight and looked at Dor. "Thanks for letting me cry on your shoulder."

"Happy to oblige. Bryllyance."

"May I ask another question?" Ignatius said.

Dor nodded.

"This spanking was punishment for… boorish behavior, yes?"

Dor nodded again.

"Then aren't I also deserving of a spanking?"

There was no tugging of magic at her chest, but Dor found herself nodding. Bryll stood and moved to one side.

Ignatius took a deep breath, and with a brief gesture banished his black clothing to stand nude before her. Ignatius' elven form was slim but well-muscled. His nipples were dark and hard. A whisp of jet black curls framed his slim boyhood. He was handsome to be sure, and his sudden nakedness stirred Dor tummy and caught her breath.

Before she could ask him to wait, Ignatius lay over her bare lap. His skin was warm against hers and his weight made her squirm and tingle. Her pale pink nipples pebbled. Goosepimples rippled up and down her skin. But neither Ignatius nor Bryll seemed to think their shared nudity was anything to balk at.

Taking a deep breath to focus, Dor put a hand on his back to steady herself.

Ignatius' bottom was firmer than Bryll's and didn't bounce as much. His skin was darker and didn't splotch as much. He hissed and grunted at each stinging smack, but his reactions were far less dramatic than Bryll's. Dor tried to spank the red dragon boy as she'd spanked Bryll—a quick, sharp rhythm. She was convinced she'd had little impact when the Ignatius suddenly took a deep shaking breath and sobbed, chest heaving.

• • •

Sometime later, after Dor pulled t-shirt and jeans from her mindpocket, after she'd assured the librarian, a serene elf with a hint of concern to his expression, after she'd let the boys cuddle her while they cried into her shoulder, Dor was finally able to tell Bryll about the geas.

"But that's awful," said Bryll. "Why didn't you say something sooner?"

"I tried. But you made me promise not to leave."

"But I didn't mean it like that." He hid his face and shook his head. "I just wanted to see if it would work. I just… I just wanted a friend."

Ignatius put a hand on his shoulder. "I will be your friend, Bryllyance."

Bryll looked at the other boy. "Really? Even though I'm a stupid, petulant, selfish child?"

Ignatius flushed dark and for a moment Dor thought he'd react angrily. Then he sighed and shrugged. "I'm not much better. If you'll be my friend, I'll be yours."

The three of them spent a quiet afternoon in the library. First, Dor made them clean up the mess they'd made of the books in their little nook. After nearly half an hour of their bumbling, uncertain how to organize their mess, Dor cast took mercy on them and [Pince's Catalogue], sorting the bookcase with ease.

Next, they researched the Summon Familiar spell. They were looking for a way to break the connection between caster and target that didn't involve harm to either part. But familiars were typically non-sapient animals with significantly shorter lifespans than their masters. By the time the sun was setting and the librarian had passed by to remind them of the hour for the third time, they gave up.

"I'm sorry, Dorothy," Bryll said. "But if it helps, I release you from any promises you made to me that keep you from making your own decisions."

Dor smiled at him. "I appreciate that. But I'd like to get this taken care of before moving on. If you two don't mind helping me that is."

"Not at all," said Bryll.

"This research has been wonderfully interesting," said Ignatius.

"Maybe we'll have more luck in grandmother's library," said Bryll

They left the Library at Purple Coast and made for the wide thoroughfare. The sunset was a riot of red, orange, and pink along the horizon over the ocean. The sky above was blue darkening to purple.

Ignatius cleared his throat. "You asked what I wanted to do today, and I had nothing useful to contribute. But I have an idea now, if that's all right."

"Of course," said Bryll, enthusiastic.

"I have enjoyed taking this form," said Ignatius, gesturing at himself. "I quite like shapeshifting." He blushed and looked at them defiantly. When they didn't mock him, he cleared his throat and continued. "But I've been without my wings for all the weeks it took to sail here. I would like to fly."

Bryll grinned. "I'll show you where you'll be staying in my grandmother's fortress. There's a spare room next to mine."

The three of them shapeshifted to dragon form, Dor remembering to cast [Dor's Mindpocket] before ruining another set of clothes, and they leapt into the air. Ignatius was a better flyer than Bryll, but not as good as Dor. They kept pace with the amethyst dragon before banking out over the ocean, letting the shifting currents move them to a warm pocket, giving them lift enough they could glide all the way to the fortress of the Dragonlord.

• • •

Dor woke in the middle of the night. She was sprawled in a pile of dragons, coins, and gems. Bryll and Ignatius were curled on either side of her. In her human form, she'd have found the situation distinctly awkward, but in dragonform it was perfectly comfortable.

For a moment, she thought the dreams of far off, incredible places had returned, the dreams that had sent her daydreaming and gotten her spanked back at St. Bridget's, but a few moments later, a spell from her grimoire flashed in her mind: [Minwu's Heala]. She extracted herself from pile, shifted to human form, and pulled the grimoire from her mind. She even managed to use her mindpocket spell to get dressed and was pleased at how seamless the process was.

Dor turned to the correct page and put a finger on [Minwu's Heala]. In the art, Minwu sat in peaceful repose, limned in pale green light. All about her was abstract depiction of pain and suffering, but the light of the heala spell banished them all. She read the text:

Choose one or both:

• Remove up to two -1/-1 counters from target creature you control.

• Destroy target Aura you don't control attached to a creature you do control.

Perhaps that was it. The Heala spell could remove enchantments cast by someone else. She didn't know if Bryll's Summon Familiar spell would count as an enchantment, but perhaps the geas part of it would. The tingle at her shoulders intensified and Dor pushed the power within her through the playing card, focusing the power to a particular purpose. That power washed over her and she felt the knot of compulsion in her chest loosen and release.

"Goodbye, boys," she whispered. "I'll visit sometime. Try to be good to each other."


	10. Republic City, Part 3

Shirou Ono slipped his arm through Kya's as he walked her back to her parents' house. They'd been seeing each other for three weeks now, spending every Sunday together at the vendors' market she liked. They would gawk at the street performers and eat fried food and peruse the trinkets. He had purchased her a folded paper flower. It wasn't much, but he thought she'd like the gesture.

They'd only met a month or so ago, at the market, but Shirou found himself thinking about Kya a lot. He knew his grandparents wouldn't approve of him courting a waterbender, but he couldn't stop thinking about her soft brown skin, her wavey hair, her bright blue eyes. He couldn't stop thinking about walking with her through the market, discussing everything from neighborhood politics to when the new Avatar would be announced.

As they rounded the corner to Kya's house, he pulled her a little closer and she snuggled into him.

"Thank you for coming out with me, Ms. Chang."

Kya giggled. "Thank you for taking me out, Mr. Ono."

The sky had been grey all afternoon, and the smell of rain was thick on the air. Shirou wondered if she would invite him in should it start raining.

• • •

Dor walked through L-Space with deep breaths and light shoulders. Being free of the geas Bryll has put upon her felt wonderful. She only hoped the dragon boy didn't resent her for leaving in the middle of the night.

She put Bryll out of her mind and focused on Kya. Last time she'd tried to find Kya through L-Space she'd found herself in an abandoned library. This time she caught the scent of rain and found herself in narrow stacks of scrolls on her left and wood-bound books on her right. A few moments later, she slipped through to a narrow building with creaky wooden floors and a dusty smell. A small woman with an iron bun and narrow spectacles looked up at her from where she read behind a counter, her expression startled.

"Oh. Um, pardon me, ma'am." Dor hurried from the shop before the woman could say anything.

She found herself in the marketplace Kya had taken her that last day in Republic City. She recognized the festive atmosphere if not the stalls and merchants and performers. After several moments of disorientation, she became fairly certain which way to go to find the Changs' house. She was just approaching the edge of the market when she caught sight of Kya from behind, her dark, wavy brown hair unmistakable.

Dor's breath caught.

She was about to call out when a boy approached. He was tall with pointed features and dark hair and bright golden eyes and Kya smiled at him in a way that made Dor bite the inside of her cheek. Her lip trembled and her shoulders slumped and she wasn't certain why until the two started walking together, close, shoulders almost touching. They walked in the direction of the Changs' house.

Dor stuck her hands in the pockets of her jeans, not certain she wanted to follow, not certain she wanted to be left behind. After a moment more, she followed at a discreet distance.

A cool autumnal breeze skittered through the streets, playing with Dor's hair and tickling her bare arms. The rain she'd smelled in L-Space intensified and she shivered. The boy walking with Kya put his arm in the crook of her elbow and pulled her a little closer. She couldn't hear what they were talking about, but they seemed to be enjoying each other's company.

Around her, speckles of rain put tiny dark spots on the streets. Dor felt their brief, cold kisses on her arms and face.

Eventually, Dor recognized the block on which the Chang's house and restaurant stood. She stopped at the corner of the block and watched Kya and the boy walk to her front door. It was unblemished, Dor noticed, no sign of the fire started by Elmira, Toshi, and the firebending Agni Kai gang. She was glad the Changs' home hadn't suffered any lasting damage, but she still felt bad for her part in bringing that trouble upon them. Her bottom tingled and her skin tightened.

Dor huddled close to the corner of the block, hoping neither would notice her. The boy pulled something from his pocket, a flower, slightly crumpled, bright red and orange and yellow. He smoothed out the petals and Dor realized the flower was made of paper. He handed i to Kya who took it with a shy smile. Then he leaned in and Dor was gratified to see Kya take a step back. A relieved sigh made her chest throb and tingle, tears slide down her cheeks. She wiped at them, ashamed, but continued to watch.

The boy smiled and took a step back. He waved at Kya who waved back, and then he turned and continued down the block away from Dor.

Kya took a deep breath, chest swelling, then suddenly looked to her left, at Dor.

Dor hunched and ducked out of sight, putting her back to the stone wall of the building behind which she hid. She felt silly. Kya was her friend, she was here to see her, but now she was embarrassed to have been caught spying. Of course, that wasn't really what she'd been doing. She hadn't meant to interrupt… whatever that was.

"Dorothy? Is that you?" Kya's voice carried through the faint patter of sprinkling rain.

Dor squeezed her hands into fists and hunched her shoulders as her cheeks burned. She bit her tongue and tried to control her breathing. She was suddenly more nervous than she'd ever been, more than when talking to Mr. Quillon, more than when she'd been about to be spanked by Sister Mary Margaret, even more than when she'd stared into the face of the Infinite Library, certain she'd be erased as a paradox.

Kya came hurtling around the corner. She stuttered to a stop when she realized Dor stood against the wall. Kya turned to face her, eyes shining, chin quivering.

"I… I'm sorry," said Dor. "I should have—"

"You're alive," said Kya. Her voice caught and squeaked. Kya put her hands behind her back and took a step back. "I didn't know… I thought maybe you weren't coming back."

"I meant to," said Dor. "I should have come earlier. It's just…"

"It's okay," said Kya. "I'm really glad… You're looking well."

"Are your parents okay?" said Dor. "I was so afraid something… but the house looks..."

"I put the fire out. After you and that girl disappeared, Toshi and his thugs were spooked. They took off. But yeah, my parents are fine."

"Good."

The rain picked up: heaver, fatter, colder.

"They're out, you know. My parents. At a show I think. It's Sunday." Kya held a hand out to Dor. "You want to come inside?"

Dor bit her lip and nodded. She took Kya's hand. It was like lightning when they touched. Her heart jumped and skipped, then settled to a gallop.

Kya grinned, cheeks turning rosy. She led Dor down the street to her house and let them in. She took Dor upstairs to her room, closing the door firmly behind them. With the door was closed, when they were alone and private, Kya grabbed Dor in a fierce hug, squeezing her shoulders tight.

"I really thought you had died," Kya said. "I'm glad you're back."

Dor's heart swelled and she returned the embrace. After a bit, Kya broke free from the hug and sat on her bed, inviting Dor to join her with a gesture.

"So what happened? You escaped? Is that firebender girl still after you?"

Dor shook her head and launched into the tale of Hogwarts School of Wizardry, Ravenclaw's Diadem, and paradox in the Infinite Library. She told Kya about Xavier's Institute and the school at Mysidia and the dragon-boys of Majyst Isle.

"And now I'm trying to figure out how to get all these artifacts back where they go. Minwu suggested a telepath might help, so I've been mediating with Jean. I've… I should have come to visit though."

Kya shrugged awkwardly. "You were busy. It's… It's all right."

"No. I feel really bad. I thought I could return Excalibur, but I got pulled off course… I should have visited, but I was worried you or your parents were hurt. And I was embarrassed at having brought trouble to your house. And the longer I put it off, the worse I felt."

Kya chuckled. "If it's any consolation, mom spanked me for that." She nudged Dor.

Dor looked at her hands in her lap, blushing hard, tears in her eyes. "Not really," she mumbled.

"Come on. It's okay, really. None of us are hurt, and Toshi's grandfather got that punk to lay off us."

"Are your parents mad at me?"

"Of course not. If anything, they're worried about you. Besides, I told them it was all my fault. Which is true, by the way."

Dor shrugged again.

Kya cleared her throat.

There were several moments of uncomfortable silence.

"So. These artifacts. That means you're not staying, doesn't it?"

Dor looked up from her lap at Kya who looked out the window. Rain streaked the glass.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you're going to go away again. On purpose this time. You have to if you're going to return the things that creepy librarian stole. And you can't just _not_ return them. Right?"

Dor nodded. "Is that why you were with that boy?"

Kya looked at her sharply.

Dor swallowed hard. "I was trying to find you and ended up at the market. I saw you, but you were with that boy. I didn't want to interrupt… whatever that was. So I just followed."

Kya's sharp look faded to a grin. "Are you jealous?"

Dor hid her face in her hands. She didn't think she was the jealous type, but she had to admit she hated the idea of Kya with a suitor. "Maybe." She mumbled into her hands.

Kya put a hand on her back and rubbed soothing circles against her t-shirt. Dor leaned into her.

"I started seeing Shirou a few weeks ago. He's sweet. I like him. Certainly he's a friend. I don't know if he's more than that. I don't know if I'd want him to be."

Dor sniffled and tried not to cry.

"But he doesn't have your intelligence, or your courage, or your strength."

Tears slid down Dor's cheeks. Kya continued rubbing her back.

"But I didn't think you were coming back. And if you're going to leave again, I understand, but I don't think I can just keep wondering when you'll come back."

Dor cleared her throat and nodded even as she leaned harder into Kya. "I didn't mean to worry you," said Dor.

"It's okay."

"No. It's not. It was reckless of me to put your family in danger with the Agni Kai."

"I already told you. I got spanked for that."

"But _I_ didn't. And it was rude of me not to come back when I could. It's selfish of me to be jealous that you might have a suitor."

Kya cleared her throat and shrugged. "All that traveling you've done. Haven't there been any boys you thought were interesting?"

Dor blushed. "Not really. Admittedly, Ignatius is quite handsome, but…"

"Dor, if you promised me you'd stay, I'd tell Shirou he and I can only be friends. But you can't promise me that, can you?"

Dor shook her head and cried into Kya's shoulder. Kya held her close and kissed the top of her head. Rain pounded the room in a steady drumming drone. Dor didn't know how long they sat like that, how long she cried, but as her tears let up, the rain increased.

"Feel better?" Kya asked.

Dor shrugged. "Not really. I've been terribly unfair to you. I've been selfish. I wish it was me your mother had spanked instead of you."

"Well, if you like, I could…" Kya slid her hand down Dor's back to her hip and patted her sharply though her jeans.

Dor bit her lip.

"But only if you want," said Kya, patting her again.

Dor considered only a moment before nodding. She unbuttoned her jeans, squirming them down her hips to her knees. She kicked off her shoes as Kya scooched back so Dor could stretch out across her lap. She pulled her auburn braids over her shoulder to keep them out of the way. Her skin tightened. Her heart thumped. Her loins ached. Not only did Dor feel she deserved this spanking, but she was excited for it. She shivered when Kya put a hand on her back to push her t-shirt up. She held her breath when Kya took hold of the waistband of her bright purple panties and pulled them to her knees. She closed her eyes, gripped the bedsheet in her fists, and pushed her bare bottom up just a bit.

Kya spanked her hard.

Dor yelped in surprise. She tried not to kick but couldn't help but squirm.

Kya giggled and rubbed Dor's bottom where she'd spanked it. "There's a pink splotch."

"Yeah, that happens," Dor said, breathless.

"Your skin is so smooth and pale." Kya ran her fingertips along the curve of Dor's bottom, over the stinging mark.

Dor shivered.

Kya spanked her again, the other cheek this time. Dor hissed with the sting. Her heart thumped and her breath came short. Kya ran her fingers along her bottom again and though the gentle touch made her shiver, made her squeeze her eyes closed, she ached to be spanked again. When it came, Dor cried out. She always cried when she was spanked, but this felt different. Her skin tingled and her chest tightened and as Kya smacked her bare backside again and again, alternating cheeks, making a thorough job of it, Dor felt a breathless fire within, a fire that wanted to be freed.

Getting spanked by Kya wasn't like anything else. It wasn't the harsh discipline of Sister Mary Margaret, nor was it the lovingly stern spankings of Minwu, or even Jean. It hurt, to be sure. It stung like mad, and Dor cried freely squirming and sweating and drumming her toes on the bed. But it was also like the hot chocolate of the Hufflepuff common room. It filled her with warmth and she wanted more. The fire built, sliding from her chest to her loins. She felt hot and slick and longed for… She pushed her face into the bed and squeezed her thighs tight and grit her teeth. The heat built until she felt she must burst with it.

And then the spanking was done.

For a moment, Dor tensed, waiting for it to continue, for it to burst her from the inside, but it didn't and that tension faded. She slumped across Kya's lap and couldn't help but pant through her tears.

Thunder grumbled under the pounding roar of the storm.

"Are you all right?" Kya's voice came as though from down a long corridor.

Dor tried to respond, but her throat wouldn't work, so she nodded.

Kya rubbed her hot bottom in smooth, slow circles, sliding across both cheeks, the heel of her hand catching at the crease of her thighs. Dor grunted with each intense thump.

Kya made a little sound of interest and rested her hand over that hot, damp crease, then her fingers slid between Dor's thighs to that most private of places, hot and slick. Dor gasped and tensed.

"What…"

Kya pulled her fingers away. "I'm sorry. I should have asked."

"What was that? What were you…" Dor cleared her throat.

"If you don't want me to, I won't."

"Want you to do what?"

Kya giggled, then cleared her throat. "Are you serious?" But before Dor could answer, she said, "You are, aren't you? You've never… pleasured yourself?"

"Oh. That. No. The sisters said it was a sin. They used the cane on anyone they caught doing it. I don't even really know…"

"Well that's just cruel. There's nothing wrong with it." She put her hand back on Dor's bottom and rubbed gently. Her smooth touch was nice against the stinging skin. "You sort of seemed like you... I thought you might want me to…" she rested her hand over the crease of her thighs again. "I've never done it for someone else before," Kya said. "Did it hurt?"

"No." She'd caught her breath and her body was relaxed, her mind was slow. But that spark of fire still smoldered deep within. She pushed her bottom gently against Kya's hand.

Kya slid her hand between Dor's thighs. Dor shifted and spread herself just a bit. Kya's fingers touched the burning warmth of her lips and Dor groaned, high and long. The sound was unexpected but swallowed by the storm. Tears of embarrassment slid down her damp cheeks.

"Are you okay?" Kya asked.

Dor tried to respond. She hoped she made the right sounds.

Kya slid her fingers the length of those lips and back. And then again and again, and the rhythm of it mimicked the rhythm of the spanking.

Downstairs, the door banged open and Kya's parents trod heavily into the home.

Dor squeaked and pushed to her knees, all in a panic. Kya got to her feet, hand to her chest. Before Kya could say anything, Dor, pulled up her panties and jeans, breathing hard.

"It's all right," Kya said. "They'll be happy to see you. We just have to… um… pretend like nothing was happening.

Dor nodded wide-eyed and chest-thumping.

They needn't have worried. Kirima and Po Chang were delighted at Dor's return. Once they'd shaken the rain from their umbrellas and jackets, they each wrapped Dor in firm, warm hugs, and Mr. Chang decided to cook even though everyone had eaten while they were out. They all joined him in the kitchen and Dor found it was easy to reintegrate herself into the Chang household. She considered what Kya had said, that she'd tell that boy they could only be friends if Dor promised to stay. She decided to give it a try.

At dinner, Dor told her story from the very beginning. The Changs hung on her every word. She took her time, savoring the spiced meat and buttered rice and fried vegetables. She described the wonder of Hogwarts and the cruelty of Mr. Quillon and the careful planning of paradox.

"That was quite clever of you," Mrs. Chang said.

Dor blushed and demurred. "I'm sorry I didn't come back earlier."

"You're like a wandering warrior," Mr. Chang said quietly. "You have a task. Your drive to complete it will not allow you to be tethered." He picked up his soup bowl and sipped the thick, cloudy broth.

• • •

The rain did not let up.

Dor stood at the back door to the courtyard, just under the shelter of the roof awning, watching the water pound the flagstones. Brief flashes of distant lightning occasionally lit the courtyard. Distant rumbles of thunder echoed across the sky.

Kya stood next to her, shoulder to shoulder, watching the rain. Each of them held a bowl of the broth Mr. Chang had made for the noodle soup. It was warm, steaming, and fragrant against the cold scent of rain.

Dor shivered at a flash of lightning. Kya leaned into her as the thunder rumbled.

• • •

Dor wandered the halls of L-Space, bookshelves towering over her, stuffed to the brim with pages bound. Her hair, free of its braids, hung loose around her bare shoulders. Her bottom, well spanked, pulsed gently in time with her whispery steps down wooden floors. Everything smelled of warm soup, dry ink, and far off rain.

She knew she slept. She could feel her body lying next to Kya's, warm under the covers, safe from the storm, but her mind drifted from aisle to aisle in the Infinite Library within her mind. Every book that had been, would be, or could be was somewhere in there, expertly catalogued, and they were all hers now.

She peeked through the halls of L-Space, peering through the Blind Eternities and the planes beyond, drifting without aim or tether, mind smooth and wandering.

Presently, she found herself looking from L-Space to the cottage where Minwu and Li lived. She was never quite certain at what point in their twenty-five hour day cycle they would be, so she could be interrupting meal time or bed time or class time and didn't want to intrude. The Ornitier family kept a pair of bookcases in the corner of their entryroom, allowing her an uninterrupted view into the house.

The bedroom door was closed and the sitting room dark. Dor felt her mind settle as she looked into the darkened house. She assumed they were in bed, asleep. Then she heard muffled groaning. Concerned, she approached, not quite leaving L-Space. She heard a gasp and breathy shudder.

As her eyes adjusted to the shadows, Dor realized she could see someone moving. A few moments later, she could make out Minwu, faint moonlight from the window shining off her naked form. Minwu sat on the floor of the entry room, reclining on her elbows, knees up and legs spread. Li knelt before her, one arm cradling one of her thick thighs, face buried between her legs.

Dor's cheeks lit afire and her whole body tingled. She was at once mortified and intrigued. As she'd explained to Kya, Dor knew little about sex, only the basics: that sex was for married couples making babies. But this was something else. There was no way Li would make Minwu pregnant like this. Clearly, this was for pleasure, and the way Minwu squirmed and moaned, it was extraordinarily pleasurable.

Dor bit the inside of her cheek, remembering Kya's fingers between her thighs.

She was about to leave when Minwu suddenly cried out, her elbows slipping from under her, pale pink hair splaying, body spasming. Minwu put one hand over her mouth even as she continued to groan in pleasure. Li lifted to his knees and looked to the closed bedroom door, tense. After several moments, Minwu looked too.

"Still sleeping," Li whispered.

Minwu laughed quietly. Li joined her and for several moments they dissolved into a fit of giggles, covering each other's mouths, unable to stop themselves.

"Shush, shush," said Minwu. "You'll wake the babies."

"Me? You're the one crying out in ecstasy."

Minwu spread out flat on the floor and sighed. "You're damn right. That was amazing Li. Thank you."

"Happy to be of service." He chuckled deep in his chest. "Anything else I can do for you?"

"Yup." She reached for him and he bent down, bracing himself with his thick arms.

"And what is that?"

Minwu put one hand on his shoulder and reached the other for his waist. Dor couldn't quite make out the details in the moon shadows, but Li stiffened and groaned.

"You sure?" he asked.

Minwu bent her knees, spreading her legs wide and Li pushed to her.

Dor cheeks and loins burned. She left them to their privacy, hurrying her mind through the corridors of the Infinite Library, mixing and splitting within L-Space, her private path through the Blind Eternities, back to her body, hot against Kya's, burning and aching and pulsing.

• • •

She woke, feverish and slick with need. With a deep breath, her eyes snapped open. Even in the dark of the bedroom, Dor could see Kya's face, eyes open, staring at her from only inches away.

"You're awake," Dor said.

"Can't sleep," Kya said.

"Why not?"

"The girl I have a crush on is naked in bed with me."

Dor blushed and bit her lip. She had a couple nighties she could have wore, but when Kya slipped into bed naked, Dor had decided to follow suit.

"Do you still want to…"

Kya nodded.

Dor reached for her. Kya's skin was soft under her fingers, but her body was firm. Dor slid her hand to Kya's waist and held on to her. Kya leaned her face close to Dor. Their noses bumped. Kya tilted her head and kissed Dor, a quick peck on the lips, and pulled back. Dor wanted more. She squeezed Kya's hip and kissed the other girl back, long and deep. Kya's hand groped for Dor, sliding to her loins.

"I don't, um, I'm not sure…" Dor whispered.

"Should I stop?"

"It's not that, I just don't know what to do."

Kya giggled. Door blushed. Thunder grumbled in the distance.

Kya pushed from under the covers and sat up, leaning back upon the wall against which her bed stood: naked and shining and perfect. "Come join me."

Dor shifted and sat up, her bare shoulder and hip touching Kya's. Kya was warm, even against Dor's feverish skin. Kya smiled at Dor and put a hand on Dor's right knee.

"May I?"

Dor nodded quickly, breath shallow and anticipatory. Kya slid her hand up Dor's inner thigh and Dor shivered at the tickle. When Kya's fingers touched her lips, she moaned gently. She was slick and hot and Kya's fingers slid easily between her folds.

"What you want to do is find this bit here." Kya's fingers found a little nub of pleasure within and stroked it gently before moving in careful, rhythmic circles. "Like that."

Dor swallowed hard and nodded.

Kya withdrew her fingers. "Since its your first time, maybe… maybe you should do it yourself, so you, um… so you know what it's like. And then, maybe next time, um…"

Dor nodded. She reached her right hand to Kya who took it in hers, then she watched for several moments as Kya bent her knees and spread her thighs and slid the fingers of her right hand to her own loins and between the lips. Dor did her best to emulate Kya, holding her breath as the fingers of her left hand found easy entrance between her slick folds. She sighed and shuddered and leaned into the other girl as she found that nub of pleasure and let her fingers move upon it. Kya stretched out her left leg so she could hook it around Dor's right, their knees interlocked, pulling them closer together.

Dor knew orphans at St. Bridget who'd been spanked with the cane a week straight for committing less. Even now, after all these months, she could not help a small part of herself that worried what would happen if Sister Mary Margaret caught her, that feared going over that broad woman's lap for a humiliating bare bottom spanking.

And yet…

Dor sat upon the bed with a dear friend, nude and wide, well-spanked at her own request, feverish and slick and learning something new and wonderful as the storm of a world impossibly distant from St. Bridget's orphanage granted them thunderous succor.


	11. Republic City, Part 4

Dor was woken by the smell of breakfast.

She stretched, pointing her toes and arching her back. Her body tensed and shivered and relaxed. She felt warm and comfortable. Next to her, Kya shifted and Dor opened her eyes to find the other girl looking at her with sleepy eyes.

"Could I ask you a favor?" Kya said in a dreamy voice.

Dor nodded.

"If it's not too much trouble, could I have a kiss?"

Dor blushed and nodded again.

Kya tossed aside the covers. The bedroom without covers was significantly chillier. Dor gasped, but before she could scramble to cover her naked body, Kya was atop her, straddling Dor's hips, knees on either side. Dor put her hands on Kya's hips, uncertain what else to do with them, not knowing what came next. She looked up at Kya, marveling at her wide hips, narrow waist, and full breasts with large, dark nipples. Dor could only wish to be half as beautiful as Kya, knowing she looked like a pale, skinny child next to her friend.

Kya leaned down, bracing herself with her hands, so the length of her body covered much of Dor's. She was warm and firm. She put her face near to Dor's, smiling broadly. Dor smiled in return.

"Thank you," Kya said, and she kissed Dor's lips gently.

When Kya started to pull away, Dor grabbed her by the shoulder and put a hand on the back of her head.

"Just a moment. I was hoping I might have a kiss as well," Dor said.

Kya's eyes went wide and she nodded.

The second kiss was longer and slower than the first.

The girls dressed and went down to the kitchen where Mr. and Mrs. Chang sipped tea. Dor would have preferred coffee, but didn't complain when she was handed a cup. Breakfast was mild broth and sweet rolls fresh out of the oven. The four sat around the Chang's table enjoying the quiet breakfast. Dor knew that, as soon as breakfast was done, she and Kya would be expected to help prepare for the lunch crowd. Most of the cooking was done by Mr. Chang, but there was chopping, and mixing of ingredients, moving and stacking of deliveries, scrubbing and rinsing of dishes to be done throughout the day.

Dor cleared her throat gently. "Um, uh, I just wanted to say, um, thank you, again, for allowing me to stay with you... again. And I'm sorry about leaving the way I did."

Mrs. Chang nodded but said, "There's no need to apologize. You've already explained. And you are welcome to stay here for as long as you like."

Dor blushed and blinked back tears.

After breakfast, Dor noticed Kya pluck something off the small table in the entry room. She caught only a flash of color: red and orange. She realized it was the paper flower that boy had given her and bit her tongue on a jealous remark. It was none of her business she told herself and tried to put it out of her mind.

• • •

Dor did her best to chop as Mr. Chang had shown her, gripping the back of the blade between thumb and forefinger just above the handle, using a rocking motion, slicing rather than pushing, but she was still far slower and clumsier than Kya, who stood next to her at the counter in the kitchen. Mr. and Mrs. Chang did the cooking, with Mrs. Chang alternating between that and interacting with customers. Mrs. Chang was the only one of them who regularly faced the window to the street where the customers sat upon stools and ate at the counter. Kya would much rather chop vegetables than interact with people she didn't know.

Finished with her diced onion, blinking back onion-induced tears, Dor looked down with pride.

Kya scoffed at her. "You're still too slow."

Dor looked up. She felt an angry retort on her lips, but it faded when she saw Kya's gentle grin and mischievous eyes. Dor had always avoided conflict at the orphanage, but now she stuck her tongue out at her friend and was rewarded with a giggle.

"The faster you cut, the less they make you cry." Kya poked at Dor's ribs and Dor yipped when it tickled.

"Would you two behave?" Mrs. Chang snapped from where she stood next to Mr. Chang, sautéing vegetables. There was no anger in her tone, but Dor hunched her shoulders. "If you're done chopping, bring me those onions," Mrs. Chang said in a gentler tone.

The girls picked up their cutting boards, Kya with twice as many onions as Dor, and moved around Mr. Chang to Mrs. Chang who cooked chopped vegetables in a wide pan, stirring them with a slotted wooden spoon. They poured their chopped onions into the pan.

"We need more garlic," Mrs. Chang said. "One bulb each."

Kya snagged a pair of bulbs from a box on the counter and tossed one to Dor.

Dor bobbled the garlic and nearly dropped it, just managing to catch it against her chest. Kya laughed at her, edging around her father to get back to their work station. Dor bumped into Mr. Chang as he took a step back. He grunted softly and gave her an indulgent smile.

"Scuse me," Dor murmured and shuffled around. Kya was already crushing her garlic with quick, efficient presses, like it was a race. Dor grabbed at Kya's ribs as she approached and was rewarded with a surprised squeak.

"Don't do that," Kya said. "I'm really ticklish."

"Is that so?" Dor said archly.

Kya's eyes went wide. "You wouldn't."

Dor set to separating and crushing her garlic clove as Mr. Chang had taught her.

"Dor, you wouldn't, would you?"

Dor grinned. She could feel her pale cheeks flushing, her emerald eyes shining, mirroring Kya's earlier mischief. "You're going to fall behind."

Kya set to her garlic but Dor could see she kept looking at her sidelong. Dor kept her focus on her garlic, doing her best to do as she'd been taught, to mimic Kya's proficiency. Kya was still faster than her and gave Dor a smug look when she finished. Dor did her best to ignore her, but it needled.

They picked up their cutting boards for the short trek around Mr. Chang, and Kya edged just in front of Dor. Without thinking about it, Dor reached out and tickled Kya's ribs. Kya responded like she'd been struck. With a shriek, she leapt aside, sending chopped garlic across the kitchen. Dor froze, stunned and terrified. She hadn't meant to provoke such a reaction and she was both mortified at what she'd done and terrified of what came next. She half expected to be hauled by her elbow to Sister Mary Margaret's study.

Mrs. Chang's hand popped off their bottoms in quick successive tattoo. It was the mildest spanking Dor had ever experienced but still brought tears to her eyes.

"If you're going to roughhouse, go out to the courtyard," Mrs. Chang snapped. She took Dor's cutting board from her hands the pointed to send them on their way.

Dor shuffled uncomfortably, trying not to look at anyone, until Kya put a hand on her back and steered her from the kitchen.

"I'm sorry," Dor said as soon as they entered the courtyard.

"No, no. That's my fault," Kya said. "I shouldn't have teased you."

They stood awkwardly for several moments.

"Are you all right?" Kya asked.

Dor nodded and wiped away a few tears. "I just... I don't want to disappoint your mother. She's been very good to me."

Kya grinned. "If that's the worst you behave, you'll be the least spanked girl in this house." Then she sobered. "Just don't tickle me anymore, all right?"

Dor grinned. "I promise not to tickle you in the kitchen ever again."

"Dor, please..."

"You just got my bottom smacked..."

"I know, and I'm sorry, but I..."

"And the way you squealed was just so cute."

"I... really?" Kya blushed and cleared her throat. "It's just, I really don't like being tickled."

Dor relented. "I understand. I will do my best not to tickle you on purpose."

Kya quirked an eyebrow. "Do you think you'll be tickling me by accident?"

Dor shrugged and couldn't help but grin.

Kya sighed and threw up her hands. "I suppose that's the best I can ask for. Come on, mom told us to roughhouse in the courtyard, and I want to practice my waterbending."

• • •

Last time she'd stayed with the Changs, Dor has been so focused on being of help to them, of not being a burden, that she hasn't paid much attention to their customers. This time she fell into a comfortable routine and couldn't help but overhear conversation. She learned that the Chang's home was in a neighborhood largely populated by people originally of the Earth Kingdom, from which Republic City had been carved, but that they abutted a neighborhood of people whose families had lived in the region for generations as Fire Nation colonists. There were some tensions between the groups, but Mrs. Chang shot a glare at anyone who aired grievances at their counter. Dor also learned that most of the folks who ate at the Chang's worked as lightning benders at a nearby generator or workers at the satomobile factory.

She did her best to focus on doing a good job, on enjoying the camaraderie of the Chang family, on ignoring the card of Excalibur in her mind. Mr. Chang showed her how to chop more efficiently. Mrs. Chang taught her to brew tea. She and Kya practiced waterbending in the courtyard in their downtime.

Even so, the artifact cards in her grimoire weighed upon her. Her second night with the Changs, Dor woke with a start in the middle of the night, feeling as though she had a thousand books upon her chest.

"Something wrong?" Kya asked, voice thick with sleep.

Dor sighed. "Just a bad dream."

"Want me to take your mind off it?"

"How?"

Kya put her hands on Dor's hip, then slid them to the hem of her Hufflepuff nightie.

"Oh." Dor gasped. "But what about your parents?"

"Well, if we're caught, mom will probably insist that you sleep on the couch." Kya slipped her hand under the nightie and up to the elastic hem of her X-Men panties. "She thinks we're like sisters. She might even spank us. So, keep it down, yeah?"

Dor managed to keep her ecstasy at Kya's dexterous fingers to breathy gasps. When Dor returned the favor, Kya grit her teeth and squirmed.

When they weren't helping in the kitchen, they were sparing in the courtyard. Kya's waterbending was graceful and lithe. Dor would cast her copy of [Kya's Waterbending] and did her best to mimic the other girl but even with the adaptability of the enchantment, even moving water at her will, snapping it like a whip and holding it like a shield, she wasn't as adept as Kya. Eventually, Kya asked her to show what else she could do, so Dor flipped through her spellbook. Between [Twilight's Blink], [Jubilee's Dazzler], and [Elmira's Whip], Dor was able to hold her own.

After sparring, the Kya lead Dor to their little bathhouse off the courtyard. Dor found she was less and less bashful being naked in front of Kya. They sat together in the wooden tub, soaking in hot water up to their necks. It's wasn't as luxurious as the baths at Hogwarts, but Dor doubted anything was. They sat hip to hip, shoulder to shoulder. Dor closed her eyes and meditated as Jean had taught her.

"Are you sleeping?" Kya asked.

"Meditating," Dor replied, voice smooth.

Kya shifted, sitting up a bit straighter. Her hip was like silk against Dor's. The water rippled.

"I've never been good at meditating. Could you teach me?"

Dor took a deep breath, held it a moment, and replied. "I could try." She walked Kya through the exercise of imagining a room in her mind, of careful breathing, of relaxing her jaw, her neck, her shoulders...

Every evening they shared a quiet dinner with Kya's parents before going to bed. And every night in bed, Kya and Dor snuggled close under the blankets.

• • •

When Sunday came, after breakfast, Mrs. Chang gave them each ten yuan allowance and reminded them to behave themselves. Then she and Mr. Chang left, arm in arm.

"So, we could go to the market, if you like," Kya said.

Dor nodded. "Sure. So long as you promise we're not secretly there to break up some firebender gang."

Kya grinned. "You gonna spank me again?"

Dor blushed.

"Or," said Kya. "We could just stay here today."

"And do what?" Dor was fond of the Chang home, but she itched to be out and about. The artifacts weighed heavily upon her mind and getting out into the city might help ease the urge to move on.

Kya cleared her throat. "Well, you know, we could go up to my room and, um..."

Dor blushed harder. They had agreed to be careful so as not to alert Kya's parents, which meant they hadn't done more than cuddle since their second time.

She cleared her throat. "Would your mom really be mad at us for being... you know... together?"

Kya shrugged and shook her head. "No. I don't think so. She adores you and thinks you're a good influence me. But she's also very traditional about, um, the sorts of things unmarried couples are, uh, allowed to get up to."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"So..."

They were interrupted by a knock at the door.

Kya hopped up with a short "Oh!" and hurried to answer the door.

It was the boy Dor had seen Kya with upon her return to Republic City. He stood in the doorway, all shiny and handsome and vaguely awkward in a way that was kind of adorable. Dor tried not to immediately hate him.

"You ready to go?" he asked in a hopeful tone.

Kya looked from him to Dor and back.

"Oh," he said. "Who's this?"

Kya cleared her throat and took a step back. "Shirou, this is my friend, Dorothy. Dor, this is Shirou."

"Pleasure to meet you, Dorothy," he said, and sounded genuine. "I was hoping to take you to a little café nearby. Maybe your friend would like to join us?" He looked at Dor and smiled and Dor had to admit he was kind of cute. She could see why Kya had been spending time with him.

Dor looked at Kya and shrugged. "If you like. I mean... um. Sure. If you like. If it's all right with you."

Kya nodded hurriedly. "Sounds fun."

Shirou led them down the street away from the Chang's place. At first, Dor thought they were headed toward the market, but they took a different turn. Dor worried Shirou might offer his arm to Kya, as he had when she'd first seen them together. She considering offering hers before he could, but decided trying to show preemptive affection felt too much like trying to outdo him, to show she was better than him. It was awkward at best and mean at worse.

Presently they came to a little café and Dor could smell coffee brewing. Her stomach rumbled gently and she blushed, but neither Shirou nor Kya seemed to noticed. Shirou lead them to a little table with a trio of stools along one wall.

They were met by an older woman with a white fringe of hair and golden eyes. She handed Shirou a placard.

"Let me know when you're ready to order."

Kya sat between Dor and Shirou, and the girls scootched around the table so they could squeeze together and read the placard. The writing was in English, nor was it in the flowing script of the elves on Majyst Isle. It was something new and yet Dor could read it.

Kya ordered peppermint tea. Shirou ordered green tea. Dor ordered coffee with cream. The other two gave her a strange look when she made her order. She just smiled. Then Shirou ordered them each a scone with orange marmalade, waving off any objections.

"It is my honor to buy tea for two lovely young ladies. Please, do not deny me this."

The scones were dense but flakey, the butter thick and rich, the coffee was strong and bitter and tempered just enough by the cream. They had just settled into idle conversation, Shirou explaining about his parents import business, when the bell above the entry rang and Dor flicked a glance that way. She froze, hands tensing around the mug of coffee, when she saw who it was.

Toshi Sakaguchi, the punk who'd attacked the Changs.

Dor lifted her mug to her face and cast her gaze away, hoping he hadn't recognized her, but there was no such luck.

"Well, look at this," Toshi said loudly, ambling toward them. "If it isn't my little cousin, Shirou. And is that the restaurant girl? You know she's a waterbender, right?"

Dor noticed he was alone and was certain she could take him, especially with Kya. But she didn't want to start a fight. Next to her, Kya clenched her hands into fists on the tabletop, trying not to react. Even so, the surface of her coffee rippled.

Shirou clenched his jaw, then stood and turned to face Toshi. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to enjoy a cup of tea. Is that not allowed?"

Shirou gestured at the shop where only a few other patrons sat. "There's plenty of room. No need to bother us."

"Bother?" Toshi put a hand to his chest in mock affront. "Do I bother you, cousin? Tell me, do your parents know you're consorting with a waterbender? With a halfbreed?"

"I don't see how that's any of your business."

"What about our grandparents?"

Dor stood up quickly. She wasn't sure what Toshi meant by "halfbreed", but it sounded like an insult and she wasn't about to let this punk insult Kya.

"Easy, Dor," Kya said. She stood and put a hand on Dor's shoulder. "We don't need to cause any trouble. Maybe we should just go."

"We shouldn't have to." Shirou said. He stepped up to Toshi. Though he was half a head shorter than his cousin, he set his jaw and glared at the older boy, hands clenched at his sides.

Toshi laughed, tone derisive. "Don't' worry, little cousin. I'll let our grandparents know. They'll want to talk to you about your business prospects. Is that why you're here with these girls? Do you plan to..." he cleared his throat and sneered, "sell their services?"

Dor reacted without thinking. She summoned her wand from her mindpocket and pointed it at the boy. Blue and pink and yellow sparks danced for the barest of moments at its tip, then erupted and exploded in Toshi's face, knocking him back.

Toshi shouted and stumbled backward, striking out with his fists, lances of fire jetting every which way. Patrons screamed. The owner shouted a mixture of fury and surprise.

A pair of toughs hustled into the shop. They wore slick, dark suits with bright red ties and golden tie tacks. Each wore a brimmed hat with a red hatband. They weren't the same thugs Toshi had been working with, but Dor felt certain they were with the Agni Kai gang. She held her wand at the ready, prepared to duel them both. Kya snapped into a waterbending stance and all the tea and coffee in the room flowed to her command, swirling about her in a long, thin ribbon.

Toshi jumped to his feet, blinking rapidly, shouting insults. Nothing was on fire, but the room smoked and smelled of burned wood.

"I'll teach you, you bitch!"

There might have been a fight except an older gentleman stepped into the shop. He wore robes of red trimmed in gold. His beard and moustaches were long and white. His likewise white hair was worked into a thick braid that fell down his back. He put a hand upon Toshi's shoulder and Toshi froze.

"What is the meaning of this?" he asked in a thick, grave voice.

"I was attacked!" Toshi shouted, voice high, almost panicked. "Those girls, they—"

The old man squeezed Toshi's shoulder, and Toshi stopped speaking.

"He insulted my guests, grandfather," Shirou said. Though his tone was thin, it did not waver. "I was just defending them."

"Your guests are waterbenders."

Shirou cleared his throat and nodded. "Yes, grandfather."

The old man looked at Kya. "Your mother and I have an understanding, do we not?"

Kya lowered her arms and stood up straight. The tea and coffee she'd gathered into a ribbon fell with a pattering like rain.

"Yes, sir."

"You should go home and explain to her what happened here."

Kya swallowed hard and too Dor by the wrist. "Yes, sir."

They hurried from the café and back to the Changs' home. Neither of them said anything. Dor cried the whole way.

• • •

Mrs. Chang opened the front door and the girls stood from the couch, holding hands. Her expression was furious, but her body language was relaxed. Mr. Chang stood behind his wife, expression soft and disappointed. Mrs. Chang snapped her fingers at her daughter and pointed up the stairs.

"Wait," said Dor. She squeezed Kya's hand. "I'm more to blame than Kya. If she... if she's in trouble, I should be too."

Mrs. Chang's lips pressed into a thin line. "Very well. Both of you, upstairs."

The girls hurried upstairs and into Kya's room. Kya stopped and faced Dor, taking her by the shoulders, tears shining in her eyes.

"There's no need for you to—"

"I struck first," Dor said.

"Mom spanks hard, Dor."

"This was my fault," Dor said. "Maybe I can convince her—"

Kya shook her head. "There's no way I'm letting you get a spanking without me."

"I'm really sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry about. You were defending my honor." Kya gave Dor a quick kiss on the cheek. "But you know how mom feels about fighting with the Agni Kai. I think we're really in for it."

Dor nodded. "I should have known better."

Kya slid her pants and panties down, folding them neatly and setting them in the clothes hamper, so Dor follows suit, putting her clothes in the laundry bag in her mindpocket. Then Kya fetched her hairbrush from her dresser and set it on the bed. Dor stared at the hairbrush. It was a carved, wooden oval, stained dark, and polished to a shine. Looking at it put a tingling thrill in her belly. Kya went to stand in the corner, and Dor joined her. She felt small and embarrassed, but Kya held her hand and that made her feel a little better.

Presently, they heard Mrs. Chang coming up the stairs. Dor held to Kya a little tighter. Mrs. Chang came into the bedroom quietly, which was worse than if she'd shouted.

"Turn around, girls."

They did as they were told. Dor clasped her hands behind her back, and looked at her bare feet.

"Mr. Sakaguchi came to see me. He explained about Toshi's behavior. He tells me he's considering sending the boy to stay with family in the Fire Nation."

Dor felt Kya sigh in relief, but couldn't do so herself. She still felt she'd made a huge error in judgment.

"Even so, I am extraordinarily disappointed. I thought we'd had this discussion about fighting with gangsters."

"Sorry, mom," Kya said. And before she could think better of it, Dor parroted her.

"Sorry, mom." Dor gasped and covered her mouth, blushing furiously. "I mean, Mrs. Chang. Sorry."

Mrs. Chang's expression softened, but only a moment. "Kya, for the first time in raising you, I find myself uncertain whether to spank you."

Dor felt the other girl shift next to her. After several moments, Kya sighed. "If Dorothy hadn't beat me to it, I'd have struck him first. He may as well have called us sluts, mom."

Mrs. Chang's expression firmed. "That is no excuse, only an admission that you lost control."

Kya bowed her head. "Yes, ma'am."

Mrs. Chang went to the bed and sat, picking up the hairbrush.

"I'm sorry to say, the two of you have behaved childishly, and so will be punished as children."

She looked at Dor and for a moment Dor thought she detected a hint of uncertainty, so she gave the barest of nods. Mrs. Chang nodded, as though to herself.

"Kya."

Kya went to her mother and lay over the woman's lap. Mrs Chang wasn't a large woman, barely bigger than her daughter, but her personality loomed large, and Dor had no trouble believing their spankings would be thorough.

Mrs. Chang sparked largely with her wrist, letting the length of the handle and the breath of the hairbrush back do the majority of the work. The crack of brush on bottom was enough to make Dor jump, her heart leaping to a sprint, enough to make Kya cry out. Dor watched her friend grimace and squirm as her hairbrush smacked bright red ovals all over her bare backside. Dor grimace and squirmed in sympathy.

When it was her turn, Kya standing nearby, rubbing her bottom and sniffling at tears, Dor lay over Mrs. Chang's lap without hesitation. The way she'd spanked Kya was not unlike how Minwu had spanked her: firmly but kindly. It was almost a relief to put herself in Mrs. Chang's authority, relinquishing control, and submitting to a spanking.

The hairbrush painted her naked bottom with a burning sting. She squeaked and gasped and cried, but when it was done, she felt at peace.

• • •

Dor dreamed of a great hall with a low-beamed ceiling and a crackling fire in a stone hearth. In the center of the hall was a great round table at which sat a number of diverse warriors in eclectic garb. Suddenly, she was slammed to the surface of the table, striking so hard she bounced and cried out. She tried to stand, but was pressed down, flat on her back, by an enormous weight. She couldn't squirm, couldn't cry out. The breath was pressed from her. She scrabbled for the weight upon her chest and her hands closed upon the hilt of a sword.

Excalibur.

• • •

Dor stayed with the Changs for two months. She helped in the kitchen and did chores around the house. She spared with Kya in the courtyard and took baths with her and slept in her bed. Sometimes they did more than sleep, but carefully, quietly. On Sundays, Mrs. Chang gave her and Kya each ten yuan and they went to the market to buy snacks, though Dor did her best to save the money, tucking away what was left with the dollar given to her by Pearl.

That first Sunday, they didn't see Shirou and went to the marketplace in each other's company. But the next Sunday, and for each thereafter, Shirou showed up and asked if he could accompany them. On one Sunday, he bought them ice cream at the market. On another, he treated them to a night at the probending arena. On another, they watched a puppet show in the theater district.

And every night, she dreamed of the artifacts stolen by Mr. Quillon, kept in the Infinite Library, and now stored in the grimoire of her mindpocket.

• • •

Dor woke with a gasp, clawing her way from a dream of Excalibur weighing her down. She sat up, chest heaving, skin damp with sweat. Kya sat up next to her with a grunt and trailed her fingernails gently across Dor's bare back.

"Was it the same dream?"

Dor shook her head. "This time I was at the bottom of a lake."

Kya cleared her throat roughly. "Maybe it's time for you to go."

Dor gave a small sob. "I don't want to go. I want to stay here with you."

"I know."

Dor leaned into her. Kya hugged her shoulder.

"You can come back, when you're done, right?" Kya kissed the top of her head.

"If we're quiet, maybe I could take your mind off it?" Kya asked.

Dor nodded eagerly, a fire lighting in her belly, but rather than let Kya's fingers explore her nether regions, she clambered between Kya's legs, surprising the other girl with her forwardness. She remember watching Li and Minwu in the dark of their home, and how Li's face had been pressed to Minwu's nethers. She wanted to try that, to explore the option with Kya.

Kya gasped when Dor put her lips to the inside of her thigh. Kya bent her knees and spread wide. Dor wrapped her arms around Kya's thick thighs to give herself leverage. She kissed and nibbled and licked, letting her tongue press and explore the warm, damp folds. Kya tasted thick and salty and took a little getting used to, but she decided she liked it. She found that little nub of pleasure with her lips, and Kya had to cover her mouth so her parents wouldn't hear her groans of ecstasy.

• • •

In the morning, Dor said her goodbyes.

Mr. Chang hugged her softly. "May your quest be fruitful and may you return to us when you are ready."

Mrs. Chang hugged her fiercely. "Try to behave out there."

Kya escorted her to the courtyard and they hugged each other for a long while, crying into each other's shoulders gently.

"Shirou isn't so bad," Dor said. "I think you tickle his fancy. You could do a lot worse."

"Are you giving me permission to date him?" Kya asked.

Dor shrugged. "Only if it's my permission to give. You are my friend and my love and if I could live here with you forever, I would. But I've had dreams like this before, back at the orphanage, dreams of other places. I think the multiverse has always been calling out to me. Pulling at me. I don't know that I can resist it. Even if I return all the artifacts, I'm not sure I want to resist it."

"Kya nodded gravely. I think I understand. You're like the air nomads of old. Always traveling. Always making friends. The world, no the multiverse, is your home." She sighed. "So if meet anyone out there who tickles your fancy, well, you have my permission to tickle theirs right back. Assuming it's my permission to give."

Dor nodded. She kissed Kya and Kya kissed her back. Then Dor stood in the center of the courtyard and Kya gave her space. Dor closed her eyes and pictured the room in her mind. It came to her easily, with the barest of thoughts. She took a deep breath and the room expanded, like it too breathed. The books shifted, her thoughts settled. The door at the far end of the room opened to L-Space, and she walked through.


End file.
